Firebrand
by Temaki-dono
Summary: Helen Doe has had a difficult few months, what with her thesis defense, the chemo, and the dying. Now, however, she has been reborn in Naruto-verse! Pity she's never watched the thing. A crack pairing fanartist gets thrown into a world she doesn't know beyond its pairings. Warning: May contain humour, drama, and the occasional terrible pun. Rated M just to be on the safe side.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, this would probably be out on bookstores and what not.**

 **Prologue**

 _It is with great sadness that I announce this will be my last post on this account. Sorry, guys, but life has gotten more and more hectic in the last few months and I just don't have the time or drive to draw anymore. Thank you for all the faves and critiques, for all the comments and all the support. It was a lot of fun! Now enjoy some NaruSasu!_

 _-Optimus Factor_

 _[MATURE CONTENT]_

Helen posted the drawing, then shut her laptop down. These last few months had been hard, first with the thesis defense, then getting blindsided by the cancer. Drawing had helped her through it, injecting a shred of normalcy into her hospitalized life. The chemo had been weighing hard on her, though, and even holding the pen steadily was prohibitively hard.

She looked down at her gut. Hard to believe the little fucker had been hiding in there, slowly killing her while she slogged away in a small room, her head full of semigroups and PDE's. Still, she had managed to publish a pretty kickass paper off of it, and Dr. Haard, her adviser, had been so proud. He'd actually cried a little when they got the acceptance.

He'd visited a couple times while she was bedridden. She'd appreciated it more than she could ever tell him–he'd been the closest thing to a parent, to her, since she'd been excommunicated. Who knew refusing to marry Cousin Tom would get her cut off from all her family and friends? Just as well – she'd been running low on faith for years.

She eyed the original, lurid picture of a blond, blue eyed man, wearing only a wide hat, embracing a black haired dandy with heterochromatic eyes, red and violet. Those eyes were **weird**. She'd been drawing Naruto pairings for years, but had never actually gotten to watching it. _For mom & dad, with love ^^_, she wrote with a shaky hand on the back, hoping someone would get it to them. She put it on the bed to the side and lay back, tired.

 **Helen Doe passed away three weeks later on her hospital bed.**

 **Her next of kin never visited until her death.**

 **A/N:** And so it begins! I had started writing this mostly as personal amusement, and to get it out of my head, but a friend (you know who you are!) encouraged me to post it. I'll post the first two chapters tomorrow, most probably, and then about once every week–if I can keep myself from just writing them up immediately.

Reviews are welcome!


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own precisely 0% of Naruto.**

 **Chapter 1**

My first vivid memory from this life is from a bit after my third birthday; in fact, the first Sunday after it. Everything before it is hazy–impressions, faces, all smudged and blurred by infantile amnesia.

I'd just started to recall bits and pieces of my past life, and it was driving me crazy. First of all, what did it mean for me to be reincarnated? I remembered nothing of any afterlife, but this was sure taking my atheist brain for a ride. Also, twenty-six years of English were warping my baby Japanese–yeah, out of all the places to get reborn in, I'd landed all the way across the world.

Unaware of what his young daughter was going through, otou-san had called me and my cute onii-chan to a field out back for 'training'. Being the children of the police chief had its drawbacks… otou-san had us doing body training, and even some loopy martial arts stances, as soon as we could walk. He was also strangely adamant on us, especially me, not leaving the house.

But although otou-san was really serious all the time, and he had the scariest glares, he was actually really kind. He sat with us at night and read us stories, even though he was tired from his job. He was teaching us kanji, and he even let me draw on the margins after I was done. If learning how to punch someone out would make him proud of me, then I was happy to oblige.

Once we got to the field, boxed lunches from mom in our hands, he acknowledged us with a nod, then said in a serious tone:

"Today we start chakra training. Watch carefully." And with that, he started moving his hands into weird positions, then inflated his mouth, like he was going to spit a lot of water. "Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu!"

A **huge** fireball came out. I gaped at the display. Otou-san was so, so awesome! I clapped. By my side, Itachi-nii had a look of intense concentration. I guess being five minutes older had gotten to his head, trying to act cool.

Otou-san turned to us, and I looked at him expectantly. Was he going to teach us how to shoot flames too? I could see myself, in a jacket just like his, spewing flames everywhere. Also, the applications! He didn't even look winded, so this was certainly breaking conservation of energy as I (kinda) knew it. Think of the potential!

"I'm going to start you on chakra control exercises. First, get into your horse stances." We did. "Now try to feel the energy in you. Chakra is a mix of the physical and spiritual energy in your bodies. Feel it circulate within you." I closed my eyes, furrowing my brows in concentration. "Now concentrate that energy within your abdomen. Good."

About an hour later, after Itachi-nii was secure he could do it, otou-san handed him a leaf. I was still working on it, but I felt I was close. I could feel my chakra moving and eddying all around, but it stubbornly refused to stay where I directed it.

"Concentrate your chakra on your forehead to stick the leaf to it." Onii-chan tried, and it promptly blew off. "You must focus it well, and balance how much you use. Remember, chakra is a mix of physical and spiritual energies. If your chakra is imbalanced, it won't work. Try again". Otou-san was always like this during training. He offered guidance and corrected our mistakes, but let us find exactly what worked on our own. I redoubled my efforts

By the time Itachi-nii could get a leaf to stick there for ten seconds, I had managed to wrangle the fiery energy coursing though me. I walked up to otou-san and received a leaf. I put it to my forehead, concentrating my chakra.

Pain! My forehead hurt. Cinders fell down before my eyes as I screamed out. Onii-chan looked alarmed at me. Otou-san scooped me up and took me inside the house, where okaa-san put her hand to my head. The pain quickly subsided, and I started sobbing into her shoulder.

My training clothes, the black bodysuit with the clan symbol on its back and the high collared shirt, similarly branded, had ash on them, and I was getting it all over mom. The sobbing subsided quickly–I was **done** with crying after my last run through life, and otou-san would be disappointed if his daughter became a crying mess over a simple burn. I got off with a "Thank you, okaa-san" and we went back to the yard.

Onii-chan squeezed my hand when otou-san wasn't looking, and I shot him a smile. Moments later, we went back to our leaves, me a bit gingerly.

It happened again. And again, and again, and again. I refused to cry, though. I wanted to train together with Itachi-nii, and I couldn't disappoint otou-san. What was I doing wrong? Itachi-nii hadn't burnt any. Was I disabled in some way? After a particularly bad one, which had burned so fast I didn't even feel it, otou-san told me to got back and rest.

I looked at him and I felt angry at myself. Why couldn't I do this? I had done all the training with Itachi-nii, I was better than him on calligraphy and theory, and I could even beat him in a spar one out of five times. I couldn't let this defeat me. I nodded and went inside for the last time today, and headed to my and onii-chan's room. I sat on my bed, and I circulated the chakra inside me, concentrating it on my gut.

Okaa-san called us to dinner some time after that. She and otou-san were clearly deeply in love. The way they kept glancing at each other, the little brushes and the trusting silences… even though they rarely kissed, I'd known teenage couples less entranced with each other. Me and Itachi-nii sat between them, and I felt the tension of the day drain from me.

We ate happily. Okaa-san had made her special stew today, the one she made on birthdays and when auntie Kushina visited us. After that, me and onii-chan washed the dishes carefully. Although okaa-san wasn't police like otou-san, he'd told us he'd never beat her in a spar, and we were inclined to agree. Okaa-san was scary when she was mad.

Then it was time to go to bed. Otou-san read us about the Warring States period, about the bitter fight of our ancestors for survival. Tonight, he told us a scary story about a little girl and little boy who got captured by eye-thiefs. In the end, however, Tajima-sama led a squad and rescued them.

"That", he said, "is why we must be united as a clan. Even now, the clan is what protects all of us. Good night." He left a light on, which I used to train my calligraphy before going to sleep.

* * *

I woke up early the next day. I'd been a heavy sleeper in my last life, but since being reborn I hadn't needed more than six hours a night. I generally used this time to study–I had to keep up with Itachi-nii after all, and this was my best subject.

Today, I planned something a little different: I wanted to brush up on my algebra. I had none of my books (may my dead tree friends rest in peace), so I wanted to get all I could remember on groups, rings, analysis and such down while I still remembered.

I was finishing a proof sketch for the Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem, a personal favorite (I had written a report on it for a complex analysis class) when I overheard some noise. I rolled up my scroll while I heard footsteps approach the room, which turned out to be otou-san. He signaled me out of the room and into the kitchen. Once we got there, he sat with me and said:

"Hinote. Since you seem to have some trouble with the leaf exercise, I'm dispensing you from chakra training until we can get that looked at. You understand?"

I nodded. But what was I to do with my newfound free time? I got up and walked up to okaa-san.

"Okaa-san, can you teach me shurikenjutsu while onii-chan is having lessons?" Okaa-san's aim was no joke. I'd seen her hit mosquitoes out of the air with thrown chopsticks.

She looked down at me, smiling. "Why of course, Hinote-chan. We can use the back of the yard." Something about her smile made me feel I might prefer flash burning leaves to what she had planned.

Since I was up and about already, I decided to work on the one chakra control exercise I could do, in hopes it might help with my problems. I went out to the yard and stayed in the horse stance until Itachi-nii came to get me for breakfast.

We had nattō rice, which I liked. Its smell reminded me of expensive cheeses which were a rare treat on my past life, since I lived on a student budget. Itachi-nii, on the other hand, didn't seem to care much for it. He still ate it like a champ, however. He always did.

After we were finished eating, otou-san had us doing stretches and other light exercise, so as not to upset our stomachs. After spending months abed in my past life, I'd developed a taste for exercise. The fact that this body was so flexible (and, for a three year old, freakishly strong) didn't hurt either.

We then did some endurance training, making laps around a course otou-san had marked for us, followed by drilling punches and kicks. Itachi-nii was really good at this–a couple more years and I could swear he'd be correcting otou-san's stance.

"Hino-nee, move your right hip down a bit." Such a caring onii-chan. I hadn't much cared for my siblings in my past life, especially after they'd stood with my parents on the marriage issue, but Itachi-nii was a **real** brother. "Hino-nee! Stop spacing out, we're doing high kicks now."

Once we'd thoroughly exhausted ourselves, Itachi-nii started chakra training, while I headed to the back, to find out what okaa-san had in store for me. This part of the yard was forested, unlike the clearing we had used with otou-san.

"Okaa-san? Are you here?" No answer. I headed a bit further in, paying attention to the surrounding trees. It was what saved me, as a glint of metal and a soft whistling in the air was all the warning I had to dodge the training kunai.

And then it was raining weapons. Kunai, shuriken, senbon, shuriken again, a pine cone (?), more senbon. I started getting little nicks from the weapons. They weren't really sharp enough to break skin, but it still smarted. I picked up one of the kunai, trying to locate my attacker.

There! I threw the kunai at a blur of movement, then tried to retreat out of range. A bunch of shuriken stopped me, though, so I grabbed a couple and began watching again.

This lasted for half an hour until I, too tired to dodge or deflect another throw, took a blunt shuriken to the stomach and fell sitting on the ground. Okaa-san materialized next to me, not even winded.

"Good warmup, Hinote-chan! Take a minute catch your breath. Then we're doing target practice." I widened my eyes. This was the warmup?

I'd have been covered in bruises by the lunch time had okaa-san not made sure to thoroughly heal me. We'd alternated between target practice and dodging runs for the whole morning, and I'd taken more weapons to the face than I'd ever expected to see in one day.

Afternoon saw us doing strategy training, which today meant a strange variation of chess called Shōgi. Otou-san had explained to us that there were lessons in the game, and Itachi-nii had sagely nodded. All I could see was otou-san wanted to beat us at it repeatedly.

We also got to play each other, though, and it was a fair matchup. I had greater mental age, and was used to analytical thinking; Itachi-nii, on the other hand, seemed to always know what I was thinking. Was I so easy to read?

At night, we ate dinner together. We had some stew leftover, and noodles with roasted vegetables on top. Me and Itachi-nii went to our room, where I went back to my algebra and he started reading a book.

* * *

The rest of the week went much like that, except otou-san had work and so okaa-san led the training. She'd used some strange technique that let her be in two places at once, which made me a bit jealous. If I could do that I could do my chores and study math at the same time! I asked her to teach me, but she made a troubled face and said I needed to master my chakra first.

It really wasn't fair.

On a bright note, auntie Kushina came visiting, so I got to doodle and do calligraphy with her. Itachi-nii wasn't as excited, though. Boys. Okaa-san shooed us from the living room by four, though, so I guess she wanted to talk about serious things. That, or she wanted to discuss Minato-kun. Like I didn't know what "moving in together" meant.

By week's end, otou-san said he'd found someone to examine me, so I should be up early on the next day. Well, I mostly did that every day, already, so it wasn't a problem.

* * *

I rose on the day with a smile. Otou-san would find out what my problem was and I could go back to chakra training. I was very excited to learn the clone technique, as well as the fireball.

That was going through my mind again and again when I heard them approaching my room, and I had to keep myself from bouncing up and down on the bed. It wouldn't do to wake up onii-chan. A couple moments later otou-san came in, accompanied by a red eyed ojii-san. I simultaneously recognized those eyes from otou-san's stories, but also from a drawing, back in another life.

It was all I could do not to go apoplectic as two things hit me: first, I was in the Naruto universe–a **fictional universe**. That just did a number to my already battered metaphysics–and second, otou-san had never brought another member of the clan to see us. I stared at them, dumbstruck. Otou-san saw me up and nodded approvingly:

"Good, you were awake. Now come, Hinote. Let Kenkō-san have a look at your chakra network." I shoved the surprise and panic down and followed them to another room, leaving the cute sleeping Itachi behind. Otou-san stayed outside while me and Kenkō-san entered.

He bent down to my height, then put a two fingers to my forehead and two to my sternum, his eerie Sharingan always focused on me. I felt a weird sensation like an electric current running through me. He scowled, then repeated the procedure. He got up and exited the room.

"It is as I feared, Fugaku-sama. The child is impaired." I couldn't hear further, both because they were walking away and because I seemed to have developed vertigo. As he feared? So there **was** something wrong with me after all. Was it incurable? Again? In my mind, I heard echoes of another diagnosis. A white room, a world away, a lifetime ago. What would happen to me? Then the dark room started spinning and the walls were folding and then the floor was falling onto me. Then darkness.

* * *

 **A/N:** This one came out a bit longer than expected, due to a rewrite shuffling some bits which were planned for chapter 2 into it. Still, about 2.5k words. Pretty good.

Reviews are welcome!


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Yeah, it surprised me, too.**

 **Chapter 2**

Itachi woke up with a feeling of strangeness. It was too quiet. Normally, his sister would be up already, scribbling on a scroll, ready to greet him with a "Good morning, onii-chan!" when he got up. He looked over to her bed and found it empty. He walked out to the kitchen, where his mother was serving breakfast.

She was wearing a beige apron over a purple dress, in which he knew she was surprisingly mobile. He caught the familiar glint of ninja wire and senbon in her hair, the only visible signs that she was, in fact, a dangerous jonin of Konoha.

"Okaa-san, where is Hino-nee?" His mother frowned in that way she did when she didn't want to answer his questions.

"Hinote is resting in the guest room, Itachi. I had a sensor-nin probe her chakra earlier and it must have tired her out." His father had entered the room silently, as always. He sat at the table and started to drink his morning green tea.

He looked relaxed, but Itachi noticed the tightness in his hands and knew he was worried. That, in turn, made him worried. What was wrong with Hino-nee? He supposed it had to do with the exercise yesterday.

That was when Tornado Kushina hit the house in a flurry of noise and red hair. Itachi wondered whether she was that loud on missions, too.

"Hello, Miko-chan! Fugaku-san. Itachi-kun!" She hugged Itachi's mother one-armed, her other hand holding a cup of ramen, then walked up to Itachi, who ducked (and failed) to keep her questing hands from his face. "Now where's Hinohino?" It was a fair question. By now, Hino-nee would normally have already tackled Kushina-san.

"She's sleeping in the guest room, Kushina-san." Kushina-san sat down next to Itachi, much to his chagrin. His sister loved the woman like a second mother, but Itachi wasn't comfortable with all the touching.

"What gives, dattebane?" She asked, her mouth already full of noodles.

"Do you remember our talk last week? We had her chakra tested this morning. Just as I thought, her chakra is too volatile to allow her to activate the sharingan. I'm having it sealed this afternoon."

"Now, now, Fugaku-san, I'm not letting any half-baked seal get slapped into my goddaughter's face by some Uchiha who fancies himself a seal master. No offense", she said, when Itachi's father bristled, "but face it: you guys aren't too good with seals, for all your fancy ninjutsu."

Fugaku just nodded at that, if only because Mother was giving him a Look. Itachi knew that one—it was the one she gave his sister when she ran out of paper and started looking weird at the walls.

* * *

The next time I woke up, auntie Kushina was in my face. I had been dreaming of crimson-eyed gods and crack fics and burning leaves. So it wouldn't have been much of a surprise if I had woken with a start, right into her face… but otou-san had long since trained that out of me and onii-chan.

"Okay! All woken up? Stay **very** still for me, Hinohino!" Auntie Kushina had a brush in her right hand, much like the ones she used to play with me, wet with ink. Her left grabbed onto my eyelids and carefully kept them open.

The next hour would have been horrible had I not used eyeliner in my previous life. As it was, I merely got a bit stir crazy. Auntie had precise and fluid hand movements, painting around my eyes carefully. I wondered what this was for. Onii-chan watched in a daze, and I had to hold my laughter at the face he was making.

"Okay. Now I want you to circulate your chakra, very carefully, around your head. Tell me if it feels weird or anything, okay?" I did as asked. I may not know what was happening, but if auntie, okaa-san, otou-san and onii-chan were here then it must be for my own good.

"It's okay," I started, "but it's, um… not going into my eyes. Is that good?" I disliked speaking out. I couldn't articulate my thoughts well in Japanese yet, and it jarred.

"That's good, Hinote. We were worried your chakra might hurt your eyes, so we had Kushina-chan put a seal around them."

"Can I see?" I asked. I didn't quite know what I looked like, except maybe 'long haired onii-chan'. I hoped I did look like him. He was so cute with that round face and those shiny dark eyes and those rabbit pajamas!

Okaa-san brought out a handheld mirror and I looked at my reflection. I had okaa-san's black hair, shinier than Itachi-nii's (sorry, onii-chan) falling down to my chest, and her big dark eyes. I could see, however, that behind the baby fat I had otou-san's strong jaw… and his sanpaku! So much for getting onii-chan's trademark cuteness…

My eyes had thin dark outlines around them, from which simple designs trailed out in four directions: up to my forehead, down my cheeks, over my nose and towards my ears. These outward motifs seemed to fading even as I looked, however, leaving only small marks visible.

"Well then. Now that this is done, let's get breakfast!" Auntie was a bottomless well of enthusiasm. By the time I got to the kitchen, she was already reheating her instant ramen. How she managed to pull that off without ruining it shall remain a mystery for the ages.

* * *

The rest of the week passed in a haze. I had managed to wrap my head around the whole 'fictional world' thing, or at least I thought I had. There was no way to know whether I—or at least **a** Uchiha Hinote—had been a character in the original story. There was also no way to tell whether I had any real freedom from the original plot.

That had been a real concern, since I took my free will and "realness" very seriously. In the end, though, I decided that since there was no way to tell, this might as well be the real world, and I intended to treat as such. Onii-chan, otou-san, okaa-san, auntie were real and I refused to treat them as less than such.

The spiritual thing I decided to table for now. Reincarnation and shinobi (and their overgrown fireballs) were apparently things in my life now, and I could deal with questions of higher purposes and entities at a later date.

Otou-san had decided to focus his teaching on Itachi-nii's ninjutsu. It made me a bit sour to be so readily dismissed, but I couldn't let some disability stop me. That in mind, on the next morning I decided to pester okaa-san.

"Okaa-san… will you teach me shurikenjutsu?" Her training had been grueling, but I had made marked improvement. I needed to show otou-san I was still good, even without fancy ninjutsu.

"Oh, so you still want to learn? I thought I had scared you off! Well, Hinote-chan, I can teach you… now that otou-san isn't hogging you anymore, you have a lot of free time, don't you?" She smiled, and I had a bad feeling. "Since you're so enthusiastic about learning, how about I teach you bukijutsu?"

Thing about the Uchiha: there were _lineages_ within the clan, which passed down specific fighting styles and specialized jutsu. Okaa-san's bukijutsu turned out to include not only shurikenjutsu but also some adapted bōjutsu her grandfather had "acquired" from the Sarutobi clan during the Warring States period.

* * *

I soon settled into a new pace: Every day I'd wake up, train my calligraphy (and maybe draw a little—something I still enjoyed very much, although I had to hide some of the products from my family). Then I set out with okaa-san to train, just as onii-chan would be waking up.

If I'd thought her training last week had been grueling, okaa-san made it look like a stroll in the park. She seemed almost giddy to pass down her ninja techniques, a side of her I hadn't seen before. I generally returned to my bed at night completely sore and spent. It was an oddly satisfying feeling, though: who knew intense physical activity could be this much fun?

It was about six months later that mom gave me my first free day. Say what you will about the Uchiha, but we are hard workers to a fault. Well, at least in our house—I didn't really know any others from the clan.

I decided to spend that free day in the yard with Itachi-nii. He showed me all his chakra control and shaping exercises. I just watched, glad to spend time with him again.

"Look what otou-san taught me, Hino-nee!" He made the Horse, then Tiger seals, then exhaled. A two feet long, one foot wide cone of flames erupted from his mouth.

I clapped, impressed. "Good going, onii-chan!"

We compared our combat stances—mine had become a bit different from his, owing to the fact that I expected to fight with a staff in hand. We shared some bread mom had given us, climbed on trees, and competed to hit the targets on the trunks (I won, barely).

We were out in front of the house (being outside was against otou-san's rules, which made it exciting) when I gave onii-chan my surprise present present—it **was** christmas, though Konoha didn't observe it: a drawing of us, sitting together, much like now. He looked at me wide-eyed, then gave me hug. It was my turn to be surprised, so I just held tightly on to him.

A soft meow~ broke the moment, and we broke up. The clan kept dozens of cats in the compound, trained to find intruders and sometimes used as summons. This one, a white Angora named Haku, was my favorite. I petted him softly, and he started purring. I felt so happy, my chakra churned within me…

Bang!

The next moment, everything was red. I blinked to clear my eyes and saw Haku was gone, bits of him strewn around the street. I felt eyes on me from the whole street, and the bread from earlier was threatening to come up. And Itachi-nii was staring at me wide-eyed, making a strange face. We were covered in blood. Haku's blood. No one was moving. It was like a dream.

I reached up towards Itachi-nii, to clean his hair of gore if nothing else, and he flinched. That seemed to break the spell, because people started screaming.

* * *

 **A/N:** Not sure what to say abou this one. Next chapter, the shit hits the paper fan. Well, more than it already has.


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not, in fact, own Naruto. Maybe that's the point?**

 **Chapter 3**

As soon as the racket started, okaa-san was there. Her eyes widened when she saw us. And then there were four of her. One picked me up, another Itachi-nii, and brought us inside. They stood guard over us for a couple of seconds, then suddenly relaxed. And then I was whisked to the bathroom.

Okaa-san bathed me in silence. We hadn't done this in months. I'd long since insisted on bathing by myself, tired of having others do it at the hospital. But right now, having her touch me, **mother** me, made me feel like, somehow, it was going to be okay. Even if I'd screwed up.

Some time after, she fished me out of the tub and up into her arms. I looked down at the water, and it was rose colored. She dressed me, took me into her room, and sat with me on the bed.

She humming a song, running her fingers though my hair, her other hand wrapped tightly around me, patting my back. It was so relaxing... And then I started crying. I hadn't even realized I was holding it until now.

It felt like hours before my wailing and sniveling subsided. She never stopped singing until I did. And then she let me slide a bit farther away, and looked into my eyes.

"Do you feel a bit better?" I nodded, though I was still sobbing. "Can you tell me what happened?"

I told her how I'd been having trouble with my chakra control. How it had been agitated back then. How Haku had died. There wasn't that much to cover, but I kept having to stop to bawl into her some more. She listened impassively, still petting my head. Once I was finished, she just nodded and pressed me back against her.

* * *

Uchiha Mikoto was worried. Her clone at Military Police Headquarters had dispelled itself and informed her there was already civilian outcry to get Hinote expelled from the compound, if not from the village. She looked down at her daughter, who seemed to have fallen asleep.

Even if she weren't forced out of home, what would happen to her? She would be ostracized as a danger, the girl who made things explode. No parent would let their kid near her. Would she even be allowed in the academy? Into the village? _Will she be allowed to live_ , asked the darker part of her.

Mikoto knew how the clan worked. She and Fugaku had some clout, yes, but this was shaping to be bigger than they could contain. The fact that the demon child–for that was what they were calling her girl–was hers and Fugaku's didn't help their position. Already there were calls for Fugaku to be removed from his position.

She felt her clone dispel itself in the children's bedroom, where Itachi had fallen asleep. It seemed he wasn't afraid of his sister, which she thanked her luck for. Hinote was already certain to distance herself once she fully realized what had happened, and she didn't need to have her own brother shun her.

* * *

I woke up feeling both better and worse. Better, because I wasn't panicking anymore. Worse, because I realized just how close I had come to killing Itachi-nii. To killing okaa-san. What if I had lost control again while she comforted me? The fact that she certainly knew that, but had still done it... It meant the world.

I wished I was Helen. Because I wasn't, not really, just as I wasn't just Hinote. Helen was an adult. She was strong. She would have known what to do. I was just Helen enough at this point to realize I had been wrong to believe okaa-san could somehow make it all better. As much as I wanted to believe otherwise, she wasn't invincible. No one was.

Okaa-san extended her arms for me, but I shook my head and slid to the floor. I couldn't have her touch me. Couldn't put her in danger again, just because I felt a little lost. She sat in front of me, and offered a little smile.

Otou-san came in and sat beside her. He looked very serious. I knew why. In concealing the fact that my chakra had been wild lately, deciding on my own it wasn't important, I had endangered Itachi-nii and everyone else in the clan. What would be done about it, I didn't know. He spoke, and his voice was hoarse, his tone tired.

"Hinote. What happened today... I want you to know that it is not your fault and that we don't blame you. Never forget that. Still, it upset a lot of people in the clan, and in the village." He paused there. His shoulders sagged. He took out a crumpled scroll from his robes, and drew in a sharp breath.

"Uchiha Hinote. As of this day, the council of elders has declared you to be cast off from the clan. As such, you are expelled from the grounds under pain of imprisonment. As evidence has been presented that you cannot activate your Sharingan, no removal of the eyes shall be required. You have until next sunrise to vacate the clan grounds."

I looked at both of them in shock. I had thought I expected it. I had thought I was prepared. But still, it seemed, some part of me had hoped, had wished, that they could protect me. _It wasn't they who failed_ _me_ , I couldn't help but think. _It was_ _I_ _who failed them_. _Look at_ _me_ , _getting expelled_ _from home_ _again_. _How long will the next one last? A month?_

"I understand." I managed to squeeze out the words.

"I have talked to Kushina-chan. She insisted she and Minato-kun take you in, at least until we can... resolve this issue. She'll be arriving soon." Okaa-san didn't sound confident.

"I'll pack my things". I got up, and walked to my room. Itachi-nii was there, still sleeping. I moved my eyes away from him. If I kept looking at him, I'd start crying again. I started taking my clothes off from the wardrobe I shared with him. I had a few tees, shorts, and skirts. I hadn't liked dresses ever since I died–they reminded me too much of hospital gowns.

Once I had all my tops and bottoms in neat piles on my bed, I started getting my underwear and socks. Looking at all my clothes together, I sighed. Even my underwear had uchiwa themed prints on it. I then looked around, but felt dumb when I realized I didn't have a suitcase.

"Let me help you with those." I hadn't noticed okaa-san had followed me. She had a scroll in her hands, which she extended on the bed. When I finished placing my clothes on it, she pressed both hands to it and they disappeared into a puff of smoke.

We went around gathering a few toy kunai, and I got Tora-kun, my stuffed cat. His pointy white beard and kindly eyes reminded me of Professor Haard. While I hadn't consciously noticed that until recently, I had gotten so attached to the toy I had once almost suffocated myself with it.

I grabbed the sealing scroll and tied it together with my note-scrolls, then carried them to the front of the house. I sat there by the door, and in a few moments otou-san and okaa-san were there with me.

A couple of minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Otou-san gave me a hug. I tried to escape, but he wouldn't let me. He squeezed me tightly, and I thought I could feel something wet on my left shoulder. But it couldn't be. Otou-san never cried.

"Remember, Hinote: you're our daughter and we love you. No matter what."

Then it was okaa-san, and this time I was sure she was crying. And now I was crying too, bawling into her shoulder and getting her dress wet. Otou-san opened the door and welcomed in an embarrassed Minato-kun.

"Kushina thought it would be better if we avoided the streets. It's a bit hectic out there."

Okaa-san was about to hand me to him when he was tackled by a black blur, which turned out to be furious Itachi-nii.

"Where are you taking Hino-nee? You can't! You can't! You can't…" He quickly went from pounding ineffectually at Minato-kun to wailing on the floor. Okaa-san handed me to Minato-kun in order to pick up onii-chan. I took notice of how he avoided touching my exposed skin when he grabbed me.

And then, in a flash, we were gone.

* * *

 **A/N:** This one was hard. The characters wanted to run away with the story, and otherwise think of spoilery things. In trying to keep them in line, I ended up writing a first version which shall never see the light of day. I'd like to thank my friend for being honest with me on that. Once again, you know who you are.

Reviews are welcome. Please tell me what's good, what's bad, and what's horrible. I promise I don't bite, and I don't turn into a crying wreck either.


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: A lot of breaks in this one. Except for the first one, they are all Hinote's POV, with time skips between each of them.**

* * *

 **Disclaimer** : **disconcerting as it may sound, Hinote's awesomeness hasn't yet gained me ownership of Naruto.**

 **Chapter 4**

Kushina had been ready to **end** the Uchiha clan when Mikoto had contacted her. Throwing Hinote, a three year old child, out of the clan, when it was all she'd ever known? _That was a horrid thing to do, dattebane!_ She kept pacing, her hair floating along a phantom wind, ever since Minato had managed to convince her that declaring war on the Military Police wasn't going to help matters.

She'd tried to busy herself, finding a futon for Hinohino, making rice to go with the nattō–Hinote was the first child she'd ever seen who **enjoyed** the smelly thing–locating and disposing of Minato's stray Icha Icha, airing the rooms, setting the table, but she always came back to nervous pacing.

When she saw the flash of yellow that signified Hinote and Minato's arrival, she rushed out to smother the girl. _Poor cute Hinohino, dattebane!_ It was clear, from her puffy eyes, that she'd been crying, and she had a nervous posture that reminded Kushina of a young Kakashi. The girl struggled in her grip, so Kushina loosened it a bit to let her breathe.

"You shouldn't-, shouldn't be touching me, auntie... I-, I mean, my chakra, I..." She looked about to cry again. _Aggressive chakra... if only she knew_. And thus Kushina came to a decision.

"Hinohino, how much do you know about the kyūbi no youko?"

"Kushina!"

"Hush, Minato. I know what I'm doing. So how about it?"

* * *

I stared as auntie channeled some of her chakra into my hand. At first I could feel nothing wrong with it–it was gentle, rich, and soothing, unlike the mixture of lava and liquid lightning I had in me–but then, much like prank candy, the outer cover melted and I felt the energy swirling within. Primal, untamed, unrestrained, natural as in disaster, the chakra of the legendary monster in auntie. And yet, I found it comforting to know it was there. That I could get more hugs without fearing for her safety.

"I know you're afraid of your chakra, Hinohino, but I've dealt with far worse. Now do you want some nattō?" She mussed my hair when I nodded fervently. I hadn't even realized I was hungry, but now I could hear my stomach growl.

We were soon seated. Kushina made a face when Minato-kun gave her a hearty serving of nattō with rice and grilled vegetables, the latter of which he had made after discovering the pot that was supposed to contain them had **somehow** gotten "misplaced".

"Och, but this smells... Why can't we have this with ramen? Hinohino, I love you, but I swear you're the oddest child I'll ever know. Why can't you like sweets like dango? Or ramen?"

"But auntie, it just tastes soooooo good!" And it did.

"This fixation of yours can't be healthy."

"...says the ramen maniac." Minato-kun was officially having Too Much Fun with this conversation. Auntie apparently agreed, because she decided to give him some extra nattō. Which I promptly stole from his plate, earning me a gloved hi-five.

* * *

With all the ruckus, I forgot to give auntie her gift until New Year's, when I found it among my note-scrolls. It was a drawing of her and Minato, holding hands and giving each other smoldering looks. She was delighted to have it... though she didn't need to tell me, as her ears had apparently decided to join her hair in crimsonhood.

"We, we do not look like this dattebane!"

 _Auntie, I know passion when I see it!_ I assumed she'd put a seal on their room just the night before, so that sound couldn't escape. It was pretty easy to tell, though, since Minato kept smiling as though he owned the world.

* * *

She gave me a return gift two days later: gloves with seals for my chakra. The craftsmanship seemed pretty good, at least to my untrained eye. Black, soft leather, with detachable fingertips. I didn't ask about those–their purpose was pretty clear. They had apparently been hand sewn by Minato, which by then didn't surprise me in the least.. _Cute, studious, and good at housework. Very well. I shall approve of this ship._

On the same day, my parents visited with Itachi-nii. He brought me dango as a present, which, in Itachi-nii's view, was the greatest possible present. His sweet tooth was legendary among the family–in fact, he started staring at the dango enviously as soon as I opened his gift. I promptly offered to share them with him. Delicious things are better eaten together, after all. _Now, if I can only get him into_ _nattō…_

* * *

Auntie's house was an odd place. There were scrolls **everywhere**. The hallways had shelves cluttered with scrolls. The wardrobes had scroll holders. The dinner table had drawers full of scrolls. I could swear the scrolls themselves had scrolls with scrolls on them. _Scrollception_ , I thought one day to myself.

Neither auntie not uncle were home that often–auntie hadn't retired like okaa-san, and uncle was busy with something he called "special surprise". Both Kushina and I knew what it was, of course. We'd already started planning it. Shinobi weddings, it turned out, were far more sober affairs than what I was accustomed to. Oh, the great clans had their grand events and all that jazz, but most shinobi were far more utilitarian. Auntie and uncle were already married in all but name, anyways.

All of that meant I was alone for most of the day–at least when Kakashi-san didn't visit (in other words, get roped into babysitting)–either running through training routines okaa-san passed auntie or reading from the extensive library at my disposal. Now, at almost four years of age, I could reach more scrolls than ever. Scrolls on the nature of chakra, on battlefield movement, on concealment, weapon maintenance… It was all fascinating.

I had also managed to coax auntie into teaching me about fūinjutsu. It was a complicated subject, to say the least. There were a wealth of basic symbols and variations one needed to learn before even thinking about learning the most basic designs. More so than ninjutsu or taijutsu, advanced fūinjutsu was the study of a lifetime.

"Now, some so-called 'sealmasters' are okay with just learning a few seals by heart and reproducing them as needed. Or worse, using molds. That's just sloppy, dattebane!"

I was learning a lot about how to recognize proper fūinjutsu from shoddy jobs. It seemed to be a pet peeve for auntie and, as a mathematician, I felt I knew why. _Damn physicists, perverting perfectly good math._ Of course, following her approach meant years before I could make even a basic exploding tag, but I was okay with that.

* * *

On the week before my birthday, I found a series of old, musty scrolls in the back of uncle's bed-drawer. I had actually been searching for a porn stash. As young as I was, I didn't have anything resembling a sex drive, but actually finding them would make for a great opportunity to see auntie go tomato, which had become a pastime of sorts.

I found no incriminating materials after all, but these scrolls were quite a find. They covered all of the Academy subjects, from the very first class to the very last test, with a clarity and insight I had learned to associate with the classical papers written by great geniuses. Well, the history sections were outdated, but precise and in-depth. And these were **presentation copies** , signed by one Sarutobi Hiruzen "for Namikaze Minato, brightest shinobi of this generation."

That meant Uncle almost certainly knew the author. That, in turn, meant I could meet him! If he was still alive, that is. I was sorely lacking in information about current events–no one saw fit to discuss politics with the toddler–but I'd gathered we'd apparently been at war, and otou-san, uncle and auntie had all participated. That sounded bad for people's survival rates.

Even so, I started looking into the scrolls in more detail, annotating my studies and jotting down questions and points in need of clarification in note-scrolls. I also made an effort to locate any scrolls within my height (plus chair) written by the man. Finding good study materials is a growing girl's romance!

* * *

It was three days before my birthday that uncle announced his "surprise" to me, auntie and a visiting Kakashi-san:

"I'm going to be Hokage!"

"Oh, Minato, I do!" _Doh!_

There was a tense pause. Kakashi-san choked on his tea. I just stared, laughing inside.

"EH!?" Both of them recoiled.

Minato recovered first:

"Er, I mean… Uzumaki Kushina, will you marry me?"

It was too late, however. Auntie had already gone tomato, this time in a scary way.

One hospital trip later, they decided to schedule the wedding for January.

* * *

My and Itachi-nii's birthday party was held in uncle and auntie's house, since I wasn't welcome in the compound. Okaa-san got a training tanto for Itachi-nii, and a training bō for me. From otou-san we both got new training clothes. Kakashi-san attempted to give me a book, but was vetoed (read: defenestrated) by okaa-san. Auntie gave us plushies, a crow for onii-chan and a fox for me. As for uncle…

"Sorry, Hino-chan, but I didn't know what to get you..." He'd given Itachi-nii a box of assorted sweets, which okaa-san was currently keeping him from gobbling all at once.

An idea struck me.

"Hey, uncle! You know Sarutobi Hiruzen-sensei, don't you? Is he still alive? Can you introduce me?"

 _Why is everyone gaping at me?_

* * *

 **A/N:** First of all, thanks to my friend for helping me avoid writing ridiculous and garish meals. The original version of that dinner shall, thankfully, remain forever buried.

Now, to the meat of the thing: I find Naruto's timeline confusing. That said, I am moving Nidaime's death to the Second Shinobi World War, 19 years before Naruto's birth. This is for three reasons: firstly, so that his reign as Hokage isn't so short. Secondly, so that he didn't train genin while Hokage. Thirdly, so that scrolls could be written while Minato was alive but before he became the Sandaime, thus enabling this last segment.

Please tell me what is good, what is bad and what just plain sucks... Reviews are welcome!


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: of all the characters depicted here, only Hinote has sprung from my twisted, twisted mind. Everyone else is Kishimoto's, as is the setting.**

 **Chapter 5**

The silence was finally broken by otou-san.

"Hinote... do you know who that is?"

"A great scholar?" My face fell. "He's not dead is he?"

Kakashi-san burst out laughing. Honestly, teenagers... _I hope he inhales that mask of his._ I looked around, trying to determine why everyone was giving me pitying looks.

"Hino-nee, that's the Hokage..." whispered Itachi-nii by my side.

 _EH!?_ "The Hokage!?" _It seems I've asked for a really busy person!?_ I was thankful no one seemed to think I wanted the introduction for political reasons, or that otou-san and okaa-san had put me up to it... _But really, do you need to laugh so much?_ _Otou-san, where is that dignity of a clan leader you always talked about?_

"Does that mean I can't meet him?" I shuffled my feet and tried to put on my best puppy face for uncle. I couldn't keep the glare off, however–he was still wheezing and clutching his sides.

"S- Sorry, Hinote-chan. Whatever do you want to meet the San-," hiccup, "the Sandaime for?"

"Well I found some scrolls he sent you and I've been studying them and they were really good and I have soooooooo many questions! Wait a moment I'll get my notes!" I ran to my bedroom, ignoring auntie who snorted again in the middle of trying to clean her face.

My bedroom was, actually, a lot like the rest of the house: full of scrolls, both my own and borrowed from uncle and auntie. The main difference was they had to share space with my toys and plushies. A couple of drawings hung from the wall: Me and Itachi-nii, otou-san and okaa-san, uncle and auntie with Kakashi-san.

Sleeping had proven to be a struggle in the first few nights after moving, without otou-san's bedtime stories and Itachi-nii's comforting presence. A few times, I'd barged into uncle and auntie's room, unable to sleep (I never managed to catch them "having fun", unfortunately. Freaking ninja and their super hearing). It had become much easier, however, once I had made the room mine; auntie and uncle had also helped, putting a mini-bed next to mine for Tora-kun.

I got my note-scrolls from their drawer and rushed back, dumping them onto uncle's hands. He thanked me and gave them a cursory look, nodding now and then.

"Well, Hino-chan, the Sandaime is a busy man... but I have been working closely with him recently, so if I may hold onto these I could pass them on to him. Would that be okay?" I nodded fervently.

Auntie clapped.

"With that out of the way... who wants cake?"

It was a beautiful, two storey cake with frosting and sweet lemon sauce atop it. Auntie was a great cook, even when she just made ramen–although then it was harder to tell. Add in the fact that she had cooperated with okaa-san and uncle and we had this piece of gourmet heaven.

First piece went to Itachi-nii, who was clearly going mad with anticipation. Then it was my turn. I put my fork to it gingerly, noting how the two layers had different textures, and drove a piece into my mouth.

I may or may not have tried to shove the rest of the cake in all at once, then blushed and proceeded to eat like a proper lady. _That's it, I'm getting auntie to teach me how to cook._ I knew the basics, from living alone for a few years, but I had mostly subsisted on takeout and easy dishes. After over half a decade of that, followed by months of hospital food, I was surely not going to skip out on learning the way of the kitchen.

But first, I had to secure some more cake. The thing was vanishing into Itachi-nii, and even Kakashi-san, with his notorious dislike of eating in public, had wolfed down two slices.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen was not an easy man to impress. He had lived through three world wars and been Hokage through two, had mastered more jutsu than most shinobi ever witness, and invented a few of his own. Still, Minato always managed to surprise him.

"So you're saying someone asked you to pass me some questions on my notes? Those old things? Very well." He extended his hand.

They were waiting for Intelligence to come up with a strategy to deal with increasing concerns about the situation with Kirigakure. The Third Shinobi World War had just ended, and yet their current lack of stability raised concerns that the Fourth might start soon.

He read the notes, scribbling corrections, comments and answers as necessary. "Well, whoever this is needs to work on their vocabulary and grammar. Still, their grasp of the theoretical aspects is pretty good. Another couple of years and they should be ready to teach in the academy… you have good eyes, Minato."

Minato gave him a strange look.

"Hiruzen… these were written by my four year old niece."

Hiruzen now had a strange look of his own.

"A young genius, huh?" A memory came to him, of a pale boy with golden eyes, long ago… "And your niece? I wasn't aware either you or Kushina had any siblings with children."

"Well, it's a long story..."

* * *

Uncle came home from work a few days later with my newly annotated scrolls and great news:

"Hino-chan. The Sandaime Hokage has requested to meet you next week."

"Really?" _Ohmygosh I have to get all my notes and questions and-_ _ **Breathe.**_ This was really exciting! I had read up on Hokage-sama and by the toes of my feet was he impressive. Known as The Professor, inheritor of the title of God of Shinobi, master of a thousand jutsu. He was also Konoha's greatest bōjutsu master. _I have to be careful, or I might develop idol worship!_

I had kept working on my bukijutsu with the help of okaa-san's notes, but I was beginning to feel the limitations of my young age and lack of Sharingan. Still, I was stronger and faster than I felt any four year old had any right to be. That the Uchiha had been shinobi for generations, even before the founding of Konoha, was certainly a factor. If there was such a thing as a genetic lottery, I had got one of the top prizes.

There were also improvements my chakra control, in great part due to auntie's help. After all, if anyone knew how to keep a tight hold on rebellious chakra, it was her. The drills she had me doing were apparently from Uzushiogakure, and very different from the ones I had gotten from otou-san. Separating all my chakra in halves, fourths, and so on; making a thin film of chakra under my skin; focusing on a single strand of hair and making it move without disturbing the others.

We had kept up with the fūinjutsu classes. I could recognize most of the basic symbols by now, and auntie had declared me sufficiently proficient to start working on seallets–small, self-contained bits of fūinjutsu that were the building blocks of many larger seals. She had promised to show me the lighting array, a simple 5-symbol seallet which lit up when chakra was circulated through it, next week. Once I could reproduce it, we would work on others. At the speed we were going, auntie expected me to be making exploding tags by my next birthday.

Most important of all, however, I had learned how to clean and prepare fish. No more burning the food, my fingers, or uncle's hair! That had only happened once, but uncle just wouldn't let it go. How was I supposed to know the fat would jump up when I put water in? I'd been banned from even putting my hands near the oven after that. But now that was all past. Next week uncle was going to show me how to bake cookies. I couldn't wait to learn how to make delicious cookies, then lord it over Itachi-nii. _Bow to your master!_

* * *

The meeting with the Hokage was going pretty well, Minato thought. So far, Hinote had been hyper in that way only kids can manage, but her questions and comments had been surprisingly insightful, and Minato had found himself actually interested in the conversation. A couple of the points on the nature of chakra which Hiruzen-sama had expounded on had substantiated ideas he had started to guess at with his experimentation on the Rasengan.

At one point he noticed the Hokage was making shinobi sign code at him discreetly. _"Why did the Uchiha let someone so promising go?"_ , was the message. He sighed. Fugaku-san had managed to keep the news of Hino-chan's anomaly mostly within the clan, although no doubt some of the more well-connected shinobi would know by now. It was actually surprising the Hokage was not aware.

He interrupted the two. "Hino-chan, do you mind if we show the Hokage your… chakra control problem?"She seemed a bit nervous, but assented. "Hiruzen-sama, if you would make a clone?"

The Hokage complied, seemlingly interested. Hinote removed one of her gloves gingerly–she only took them off for showering and to wash–and touched the clone's hand. As it poofed out of existence, Hiruzen-sama's eyes widened.

"That… is a very interesting thing. I can see how that would worry the Uchiha, in the hands of a young child."

"Hino-chan had to have her dōjutsu sealed, for fear that activating it would render her blind. Additionally, she has difficulties using ninjutsu."

"I see… if Tsunade-hime ever returns, we should have her have a look at her. Maybe she can figure something out. For now… Hino-chan, was it? This is a pass for the Central Library's middle floors. Normally, they're only accessible to Academy students third year and up, but something tells me you are ready."

* * *

 **A/N:** An interesting tidbit: The mission on Kannabi Bridge happened in the same year as Hinote's expulsion from the clan.

This chapter came out a bit more easily than the other 3 and 4. I guess I'm hitting my stride? So much for posting a chapter a week…

Please tell me your opinions; I value them greatly! Reviews are welcome!


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N:** This one is a bit long, with almost 3k words. We're getting into the meat of it. Or at least the pasta.

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in Narutoverse. Hinote is an original, however.**

 **Chapter 6**

Hatake Kakashi had been a bit skeptical, to say the least, when Minato-taichō had asked him to babysit the new brat. He hadn't dealt well with them when he was their age, and he didn't believe he'd become any better at it with time. He just didn't get them. But orders were orders, so even though he'd prefer to sulk in his apartment and read, here he was.

He arrived late, something that seemed to be happening more and more frequently as he took time to visit the Memorial Stone every morning. He didn't feel ready to be up and about yet, not really. Everywhere he went, he felt **watched** , like the people around were looking at the responsible for the disaster of Kannabi Bridge. For Obito's death. More and more he found respite in books–shallow, easy-to-read books which numbed his mind.

Kakashi entered through the window, knowing what to expect. A four year old brat, full of inquisitiveness about him, if not about his father. He found her studying in Minato-taichō's study, bent over a thick tome. She raised her head and he braced himself, grimacing under his face mask.

"Good morning." And with that, she went back to her studies.

The jonin just stood there for a couple of minutes, waiting for questions to come. She gave no indication she even expected an answer to her greeting.

Eventually she paused for lunch. Kushina had left them some onigiri and some eggplant miso soup with diced tofu in it. The soup almost made up for the fact that, to Kakashi's powerful nose, the kitchen reeked of nattō. How anyone could eat anything with such a strong smell, he wasn't sure. Even though Kushina's food was great, as always, he was glad when they left that smelly hell behind.

The rest of the day flowed much like before, with not a word exchanged between the two. It felt… comfortable. _Maybe this kid isn't so bad._

* * *

Two days later, Kakashi found himself co-opted into babysitter work once again. Once again, his entrance was met with a short greeting, followed by ignorance. He got curious. _What_ _i_ _s she studying_ _in that book_ _that_ _i_ _s so interesting?_ It was quite curious for such a small child to be in any way involved with a book so poor in pictures, let alone one of that size. He moved a bit, just so he could read its spine

He was surprised to find the hefty doorstopper was actually Uzumaki Mito's _Introduction to Fū_ _injutsu Theory_ , a highly technical (if elementary) tome intended as reference material. Kushina had told him to try it once, and he remembered spending a mind numbingly boring afternoon slogging through page after page of theory, before finally giving up.

Kakashi wondered a bit at the girl. He'd been a child prodigy, himself, so he knew kids could sometimes be surprisingly clever. Still, that a four year old would be quiet and disciplined enough to focus on **that** book, and leave the stranger in the room alone, was almost mind boggling. He appreciated it.

"Ahem", came a soft voice, "Hatake-san, could you please move a bit? You're blocking my light". He'd gotten a bit closer than he'd intended. He almost panicked, but he was a jonin, and jonin need to think fast. He pointed at her notes.

"You missed a Fire symbol here." She examined the diagram, brows furrowed.

"...You're right. Thank you!" Her eyes twinkled, and he was glad at least some of Kushina's teaching had gotten through to him.

After that, they once again descended into that library-like silence from the first day. And when he left for home that night, Kakashi found himself feeling… not **well** , not yet, but better. He didn't even get mad at Minato-taichō's sly smile when he asked when he'd next be needed as a babysitter–"strictly for scheduling reasons, of course".

* * *

As the post-war movements increased–they were ninja, after all, and a simple ceasefire didn't mean the end of black ops from all sides–Kakashi had become the go-to for Hinote-sitting. Not that he minded, really. It made for a good opportunity to catch up on his reading.

Before he noticed, he and the pint-sized bookworm had already fallen into a pace of sorts. She'd study, or go through her bukijutsu drills, and he'd read. Sometimes he even gave her pointers, for which she was always politely thankful. It made him feel helpful, in a way he hadn't felt since the bridge. He'd even begun to crave it, though he wasn't about to admit that out loud. He thought he might understand, now, why some jonin chose to become sensei. Not that he wanted to do it, one brat was enough. But he understood the appeal.

They'd actually begun to talk a bit (on his initiative, not hers. He was sure by now that the tiny dork would never have stopped concentrating of her own volition), about the weather, food, her clan's puzzling fixation on cats, his perfectly normal love of dogs, among other things.

So he felt it was pretty natural when Minato-taichō brought her to the team training meeting. He was also looking forward to this, since he'd finally figured out how to perfect the Chidori with Obito's Sharingan. He wanted to show it off to his sensei–and, he discovered, to the bite-sized nerd.

"Minato-taichō! Can I show you something?" Rin wasn't here yet, so he wouldn't be eating into their training time by demonstrating it now.

"I've told you Minato is enough. But sure, go ahead." He had that strange grin in his face he always wore when he was proud of his students.

Kakashi raised his hitai-ate, revealing the Sharingan. There was the familiar, constant drain on his chakra from the eye. He quickly looked around, finding the wooden targets in their usual position at the back of the training ground, and confirming Minato's and Hinote's position away from the path.

"Kakashi-san, you have a Sharingan!?" He resisted the urge to sigh. The question was expected, though he'd somehow managed to avoid thinking about it. Sure, she hadn't probed him before, but a non-Uchiha with a Sharingan was the sort of thing the clan tended to frown upon. What could he say, however? That he'd let his teammate die on a mission and gained his eye as a present?

"Well, I..." He trailed off, suddenly very conscious of her eyes on him.

"Oh, good! Rin, you're here! I haven't introduced you two, right? Hino-chan, this is Nohara Rin, my other student. Rin, this is Uchiha Hinote, my... adopted niece?" Hinote's attention seemingly averted, Kakashi shot Minato a grateful glance. He knew he couldn't avoid the question forever, but he was glad he didn't have to deal with it **now**.

He turned back to his target, dispelling all unnecessary thoughts with practiced ease. Chakra coursed through him, focusing on his right arm, where he transmuted it into lighting. There was the characteristic chirping sound, the smell of ozone, and he was rushing towards the target, blindingly fast.

Midway, he noticed a glint at the edge of his vision. _As expected of Minato-taich_ _ō_. He dodged the kunai sent by the blond jonin, without losing momentum, and struck the target dead center. He heard claps.

"That was awesome, Kakashi-san! How does it work?" She had a look in her eyes he recognized from his time in the Academy. From Obito, talking about his clan jutsu. _No, bad thought_. He composed himself.

"It's an S-rank raiton jutsu. I move at great speed and pierce a vital point on the target, hopefully eliminating them before they can react."

"No; I mean, how does it **work**?" He was rapidly learning that Hinote wasn't actually quiet like he'd imagined; she'd just been **very** curious about other things when he'd been around.

"I channel a large amount of lightining chakra to my arm. The rush of chakra helps enhance my speed, much like in a shunshin. The penetrating power comes from raiton's piercing characteristics."

"...and you use the Sharingan to stay aware of your surroundings, even at that speed..." Hinote was pulling on her lower lip with her right hand, seemingly deep in thought. "But is the cost worth it? I don't mean any offense, but it sounds kind of costly."

"There is an argument to be made there, Hino-chan. But while it does take quite a bit of chakra, it can quickly eliminate enemies too strong to be defeated in any other way. That's why we have big jutsu–because spending half your chakra to kill one guy is better than dying to him." Minato-taichō lectured.

"...I see." She paused for a moment, tugging on her lip again. "Can you stop it?" _Why is she suddenly interrogating me?_ He shot Minato-taichō a glance, and received a mouthed "Later. Bear with it" in return. He decided to answer her question with one of his own.

"Why would I? I only use this jutsu if I need someone **dead**. It's not the sort of commitment I'd make lightly."

That didn't seem to satisfy her, but it left her deep in thought, which was the next best thing.

"Well, that was quite the demonstration. Why don't you show her what you can do next, Rin?" Minato called his niece out of her reverie.

And with a final "I guess so... Thank you for explaining, Kakashi-san!", Hinote went away with Rin.

"Now, Kakashi, I am sorry for putting you in this situation. You understand she meant no harm, right?", said Minato-taichō, earnestly.

"I just don't get why all the sudden interest." He'd wanted to impress the minute nerd, but he hadn't expected that kind of scrutiny.

"You know her. That's how she treats things she finds interesting." _Great._ _Now I know how that poor book felt_. "She is also a bit overawed with big jutsu. Remember, she is four, and it is normal to be excited about things one can't have." He gave a small smile.

"What do you mean 'can't have'? She's an Uchiha. She'll probably learn more jutsu by the time she reaches chunin than I will in my lifetime!"

Minato-taichō frowned.

"Actually, she probably won't. I'm not going to divulge her personal problems to you, just as I don't tell her about yours, but remember there is a reason she's living with Kushina and me instead of in the compound."

* * *

Rin was a bit confused when she arrivedat the training ground. Minato-sensei had apparently brought his adopted niece to the session, and Hinote-chan had somehow cornered Kakashi with her boundless curiosity. Sensei had decided to foist the little bundle of energy upon Rin immediately upon her arrival, clearly needing some space to talk to the beleaguered jonin.

And now she found herself at a loss. She didn't have any impressive jutsu or techniques to show the little girl. Sure, she could somewhat keep up with Kakashi, but she'd never been the big guns on the team. Her fighting style, as it was, relied on her chakra control and clever use of a blend of taijutsu with katon and suiton techniques.

Still, she had to do something. Being an Uchiha, Hinote-chan had certainly seen a lot of katon already, so she decided to show off a Water Jet technique. She made the signs and focused her chakra into her mouth, where it produced a stream of water that shot out. Not that impactful in direct use, but it could blind charging enemies, and it gave her water to work with on other jutsu.

"That's awesome! You can actually produce water with this... does it disappear afterwards?" Hinote-chan was poking at the puddle.

"It's not really... it's just a C-Rank. The main benefit is wetting the battlefield, so I can use the water for more advanced jutsu."

"Makes sense..."

"My main job is to keep Kakashi in line, though. You'd never know what he and-" _Nope! Not going there._ "What he would get into if I weren't here!" She lowered her voice, conspiratorily. "You can't trust sensei to do it, he's too soft!"

"Hahaha..."

"Also, I can do this!" Rin then went through the seals for a Water Spout technique, which sprayed upward from the puddle and wet Hinote-chan slightly.

"Hey! That's mean!" The girl ran at her, laughing... and slipped. Apparently her shinobi training hadn't progressed so far yet that she was able to keep her balance running on wet grass while distracted. She got up, and Rin saw she'd scraped her left knee.

"Hinote-chan! You shouldn't run like- let me take a look at that." Rin immediately knelt next to her, using the Mystical Palm. The girl sure wore a lot of cloth–despite the warm weather, she wore long sleeves, and her black socks, left one now sporting a hole, disappeared under her red squort. When Rin adjusted it to get better access to the wound, Hinote-chan panicked.

"It's nothing, you don't need to-" But Rin was already healing her, and in a second the wound was gone. _Sheesh_. _Kakashi's stoicness must be rubbing off on her_. Rin tried to picture Kakashi babysitting, but it just looked too incongruent. She looked at Hinote-chan, who seemed to be in a daze.

"Hinote-chan, are you okay?"

"It quieted down... It's just a bit, but..." She seemed to notice Rin was there, and grabbed her shoulders. "It quieted down! It quieted down, Rin-chan! Do you understand what this means?" Rin was sure she didn't.

 _...Did a four year old just call me chan?_

"Uncle! Uncle uncle uncle! Rin-chan can fix my chakra!"

Minato-sensei turned to them immediately.

"Are you sure? How?" He fixed wide eyes on Hinote and Rin.

"I just used a Mystical Palm on her, sensei..." She felt a bit overwhelmed. _What is happening?_

"Minato-taichō, what in the Sage's name is happening?"

Minato-sensei looked at Hinote, then back to them. He sighed.

"Okay, sit down. This is a long story..."

They didn't actually get any training done that morning.

* * *

I was feeling pretty happy that afternoon. We weren't completely certain as to how the Mystical Palm interacted with my chakra, but this was progress. It also made me glad I had worked so hard on auntie's chakra control trainings–had I not had such awareness of my own chakra, I wouldn't have noticed its decreased agitation. If we could harness the effect, amplify it somehow, we might develop a cure.

 _Don't set yourself up for disappointment_ , came the thought, unbidden. Maybe if I was an actual four year old, I could have just let myself enjoy this, but I had tried one too many experimental treatments to be able to trust this completely. This actually made it harder to live with, in a way. While earlier I had accepted my volatile chakra as a fact of life, to which I would have to adapt, I could now dream of fixing it–which was all well and good, _provided it's even_ _ **possible**_.

Rin-chan had agreed to meet me in one of the training rooms at the hospital to investigate the phenomenon. In the meantime, I was free for the rest of the day, and I intended to spend I all in the library, investigating something that had been bothering me: what was up with the schizo tech in this world?

Shinobi had an advanced knowledge of biology–I heard talk of cells and proteins here and there–but explosives, or at least chemical ones, were unheard of. The transportation technology seemed to be stuck somewhere in the seventeenth century, but the houses looked modern, at least away from the Hyūga Compound. We had somehow figured out modern steel and even complex composites and plastics, but not a good steam engine.

The library was, as always, emptier than it should have been. The clerk, a stern looking bespectacled man, gave me a strange look when he saw me gathering books on subjects ranging from civil engineering to molecular biology. _Not many little girls interested in those sections, I guess_.

What I found was surprising: apparently the technology was pretty well rooted in the Modern Era, but advanced production techniques had been developed by specific clans, most probably using chakra in place of electricity and such. This explained why different villages had wildly different technology levels, and why technical knowledge sometimes disappeared, when the clans which held its secrets died out.

Apparently, there were many "production clans" in the village, whose economic power was kept in check by the military might of the Four Noble Clans ( _Note to self: possible source of civil strife_ ). One such group was the Hagane clan, which held the secrets of ironwork in Konoha. Their ancestor, Hagane Muramasa, had sealed an alliance with the Uchiha by providing them with what became Uchiha Madara's legendary gunbai, said to be indestructible.

Even the Four Noble Clans had some secret technology. The Akimichi were responsible for a lot of the stimulants shinobi consumed, while the Aburame made ration bars ( _Those things are made of insects!?_ ) and the Hyūga ran a very lucrative clothing business. Most surprisingly, the Uchiha were apparently responsible for much of the production of refined sugar.

 _Mind. Blown._

* * *

 **A/N:** I made some alterations to the tech level of the setting. It just made no sense to me that, with all their advanced knowledge, they hadn't figured out how to make high explosives. The thing about such weapons is they don't depend on shinobi, which would make them attractive to villages without their own S-class, or even a small number of them. They also don't seem to use modern transportation in general, which is a bit weird. Even if shinobi are fast, we see civilians riding in palanquins, which are probably much less comfortable than, say, a train. I will expand on this in future chapters.

We finally get some notion of what Hinote wears. She doesn't tend to pay that much attention to what she (or other people) are wearing, so we don't get that much info on outfits. If anyone wants to know more, just ask! I might either do a segment in the A/N or just include a scene in one of the next chapters. Fanart is welcome! Also, anyone who wants to draw a Patissier! Fugaku (an image which wouldn't leave my head while writing about the Noble Clans' business endeavors), please send me notice!

Please tell me what felt good, what felt bad, and what just smelled foul. Reviews are welcome!


	8. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I own Naruto just as much as I did before the hiatus. That is, zero percent of it.**

 **Chapter 7**

I made my way to Konoha's General Hospital, feeling a bit wary. This was my first visit to a hospital since I died in one, and it didn't evoke good memories. The white walls, the soft purring and beeping of machines, the constant nausea of chemo, that unidentifiable smell of hospital, the bland food, back when I could still feed myself... all were etched in my mind.

The building was bipartite, with a civilian and a shinobi ward. I headed towards the latter. It was smaller than I expected, dwarfed by its civilian sister. The doorway was huge–made it easier to carry in the infirm, I guessed.

On my back, I carried a pack with my study materials–some paper, a couple scrolls, writing implements–as well as half a dozen kunai. I had used to take a notebook everywhere, in my past life, both for note-taking and sketching; one never knew when inspiration might strike. The kunai were a recent addition, a suggestion from a certain redheaded worrywart.

Inside the hospital (and it was such a shinobi thing that I, a four year old, was nonchalantly carrying knives into a hospital), I asked the reception lady for training room 12, where I was supposed to meet Rin-chan. If the woman was surprised to see an unattended child roaming around, she gave no sign of it. I followed her instructions through a corridor, thankfully devoid of patients and treatment areas, and into a small room furnished with a table and four chairs.

Rin-chan sat at the farthest corner of the table, facing a small potted plant. To her left was a kunoichi I hadn't yet met, holding brush and paper. Her blank eyes marked her as a Hyūga, and boy was it creepy to have them pointed at me. I stared back at her.

"Hi, Hinote-chan!" Rin-chan waved at me, then pointed at the chair to her right. "Come on in and take a seat! This is Hyūga Yomogi, a friend of mine and an accomplished medic-nin. I thought it might be better to have her observe while we experiment."

Realizing how rude I was being, I bowed down slightly and said "Pleased to meet you. Please take care of me." Yomogi-san nodded and gave me a smile.

Once I was settled, Rin-chan turned to me. "Okay, Hinote-chan. First, we're going to investigate how your chakra affects things. Then we can see how medical chakra interacts with it. Alright?" I nodded. She plucked a leaf from the plant." Can you channel some chakra into this?" I assented, and she handed it to me. "When I say 'go'."

I took the leaf gingerly, then removed my left glove and touched it with a bare fingertip. Rin nodded at Yomogi-san, who made a hand seal. Around her eyes, veins popped out. "Go." I channeled my chakra into the leaf, more than I had done before, in hopes that it would disintegrate too fast to burn me. There was a small flash, then a puff of ash.

We both looked to Yomogi-san. "I think your chakra is corrosive," she began. "It broke down the leaf's tissues completely." She annotated on her paper. "Let's try the old leaf."

I was handed a dry leaf this time, long dead. When I channeled my chakra into it, nothing happened. "Should I keep going?" I asked, apprehensive. "This is already twice the chakra the green leaf took." Rin-chan said "yes", so I maintained a steady flow of chakra into the leaf. Three, four, five times...

Suddenly, Yomogi-san said "Stop!". I let the leaf go just as it exploded with a snap. "Apparently, your chakra doesn't like being confined. How do you keep so much of it inside you?" Her eyes might have widened, but it was hard to tell with the Byakugan active. "Either way, the corrosive effect appears to take effect when your chakra encounters the plant's own. In the dry leaf, all residual chakra has already dispersed, so it doesn't burn. Your chakra simply accumulated, since you were pumping it in faster than it could dissipate. Once there was enough of it, it exploded. Can we try a live plant now? Channel it in as slowly as you can–don't want something this size blowing up in our faces."

Rin-chan handed me the potted plant, and I once again channeled chakra into it. At about 8x (if "x" is the amount I used to burn the first leaf), Yomogi-san told me to stop. "I can see where this is going." I took my hand off the plant, and she explained. "The plant seems to have recognized the problem, and is attempting to isolate your chakra in a pocket of its own. Our bodies do this with some poisons, and it does stop the corrosion. However, shutting it into an enclosed space creates the dry leaf problem all over again–even faster than with a dead plant its size, since the chakra is building up under pressure."

We tried several more times, with leaves of different sizes and ages, trying to determine how much chakra was needed depending on various characteristics. Yomogi-san seemed truly interested, and was apparently familiar with experimental methods. This was very welcome, since I missed talking to scientists. They have the most interesting points of view… although they generally use mathematics like barbarians. I told Rin-chan as much, as we walked back:

"Yomogi-san seems to really know what she's doing..."

"Yeah, she's been involved in quite a few research projects before. It's a pity she's going to retire soon… she's been making so much progress!" She sighed. "They marry so young in the clans."

"Can't she keep working if she loves it so much?"

"Well, Hinote-chan, some kunoichi choose that path. But for some, marrying the man they like and bearing his children is more important."

 _What._

"I'm surprised you're asking. In a large clan like yours, one would expect you to have been engaged already, especially since there is a male heir."

 _ **W**_ _ **hat**_ _ **.**_

 _I_ _spent a life_ _f_ _i_ _ght_ _ing_ _through sexist bullshit,_ _both in my family and_ _in academia, only to be reborn in a_ _ **medieval**_ _society?_ _Me and the policymakers in this place_ _a_ _re going to have a talk_.

* * *

I had calmed down a bit by the time we met auntie for lunch. There wasn't much I could do right now, either way; this kind of thing took generations to change, and banging my head against society wouldn't help anyone. Either way, my current social condition made it unlikely that I'd be a highly sought-after bride. _Never thought I'd see_ _ **that**_ _as a positive_.

Auntie had returned from a mission just the other day–she apparently gave no thought to what was "proper" of a soon-to-be married kunoichi such as her. She might retire if she had children, though; okaa-san, if I recalled correctly, had only turned in her hitai-ate once Itachi-nii and I were born. In a way, I also understood that attitude. Given shinobi death rates, a retired parent drastically reduces the chance of orphanhood.

I **had** noticed she was home more often than uncle. I had originally thought it might be due to the Kyūbi, but with this knowledge… _maybe it's my fault_. Had she aborted her career to take me in, be my surrogate mother? I might never know.

We ate at auntie's favorite Ramen shop, Ichiraku's. It was quite popular with shinobi in general, from what I was told, but auntie was some sort of VIP. She and Teuchi-san, the owner, were trading commentary on variations on noodle recipes. Now, I did have some notion of cooking, but all this shoptalk was going **way** over my head.

I turned to Rin-chan, who could commiserate.

"So, Hinote-chan. I hear you're an artist?" She inquired.

"I see my fame precedes me", I started, with a smile. "Yes, I like to draw. Oh! I'll make one of you while we wait." I reached into my pack and took out a pencil (thankfully, Konoha did have those, although I wasn't sure what the core was made of) and started sketching her. By now, I had adjusted to drawing with my gloves on, so I didn't need to take them off.

I took my subject in carefully. Rin-chan was a pretty girl, with hazel in her eyes and chocolate in her hair. She had purple square markings on her cheeks, maybe some clan insignia. The Rin I drew was laughing, with that large smile that came so easily to the real one's face. It was an expression that drew in the viewer, invited them to laugh along with her.

The food arrived just as I was putting the finishing touches on the drawing–shading and some details to her hair. The finished work included he bare neck and shoulders below her face, suggestive of what lay beyond the margin. I handed it to her.

"Here you go, Rin-chan!"

"Thank you, Hinote-chan. You're really talented, especially for someone so young. Although… why am I not wearing anything in this?" She seemed a bit flustered.

"It would take away from your natural beauty, Rin-chan!"

She muttered something I didn't quite get, and turned to her food. I decided to follow her example–no sense in letting the ramen cool down.

Once I was finished eating, I asked permission to go to the library. I had a surprising amount of freedom for a child this young, but that just went to show how little crime there was in Konoha. It's much harder to get away with a robbery or kidnapping when there's a ninja around every corner, and even a random child might be a killer in training.

* * *

Since I'd been reborn, I had met two people I recognized from my fanart. The first had been Kakashi-san, although he looked much younger than I remembered. This had caused me to conclude this was probably before the original plot, whatever it was, took place. It had also made me wary of him, since people's tendency to ship him with younger girls did little to recommend him.

The second had been Rin-chan, who I vaguely remembered seeming to be a kid. She must have been a very minor character, since there weren't that many requests for her. Maybe she was a love interest for Kakashi–she seemed to appear most in conjunction with him.

The man I was staring at now, however, was vividly familiar. I had gotten a great many requests of him–mostly involving a young Uchiha boy. It was a bit weird meeting the subject of so many of my explicit drawings. _Calm down_ , I told myself. _There's no way he'd know_.

"Hello, Uchiha-chan."

He was a study in contrast: shiny black hair framing sickly pale skin, bright golden irises set around glossy dark pupils. He narrowed his eyes at me and I shivered, even in the harsh sun of a Konoha afternoon.

"Um, hi."

"Were you going somewhere? Allow me to guide you", he said, with a faint smile.

"I'm just going yo the library", I squeaked, "you don't need to trouble yourself."

"Oh, but I insist. Such a precious little child, all alone in the village..." He paused, and that shadow of a smile surfaced again. "Who knows what might happen?"

I was nervous to my core the whole way. There was an intensity to him that speared through me like Kakashi-san's Chidori. My heart beat fast, so loud I feared he might hear–and who knew? In this world full of magic powers and other weirdness, he very well could be listening in. I was ready to bolt by the time we arrived.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, little miss", he declared, and he did look pleased. "I hope to see you around..."

I didn't really manage to get any studying done that afternoon. I did, however, manage to find out his name: Orochimaru of the Sannin. _Although, to me, he'll always be Ninja Voldemort_.

* * *

 **A/N:** University life got unexpectedly hard in recent months, forcing an unforeseen hiatus. I hope I can keep to schedule from now on... With maybe a few extra posts to make up for it?


	9. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: As expected, still don't own Naruto. I wouldn't hold my breath, either.**

 **Chapter 8**

"GOOD MORNING, Auntie!"

Kushina woke up to an excited Hinote jumping onto her. The girl had spent a few days down, after a close encounter with Orochimaru. That the snake sannin had been interested in the girl was hardly surprising–her problems were quite unique, and Orochimaru was known for his interest in rare abilities and anomalies–but both Kushina and Minato had found it worrying.

Her fiance had never trusted the man, and Kushina knew his instincts were often right when it concerned people's characters. Even if the one concerned was one of the students of the Hokage, himself.

But no matter. Kushina put her overly excited niece down on the floor, then got up herself. It wasn't that common for Hinote to be up and about this early, but the girl had a way of getting way too hyped up for learning new things. It was a delight, really, but Kushina had to wonder how she had maintained such an erratic behavior pattern growing up under Fugaku. Itachi-kun was much closer to what one would have expected, with his somber and studious disposition.

 _Although both of Miko-chan's kids are veritable_ _prodigies._ In about a year, Hinote had progressed from knowing just a few basic symbols to building seallets. She seemed to have a knack for combining symbols in unexpected ways. From what Kushina heard, Itachi was no less impressive. The kid had **Fugaku** , of all people, singing his praises left and right. _What did they feed these kids?_

Minato had already gotten up–in fact, he was already working on breakfast when Kushina got to the kitchen. He seemed to be sleeping less and less as the Hokage Inauguration (and their wedding!) approached. Kushina kissed him good morning and started the rice.

Hinote, meanwhile, seemed very intent on watching. The kid seemed quite intent on learning to cook, much to Kushina's delight. It was nice to see Hinohino participating in their family activities. She stopped. _Since do I think of us a family?_ Hinote had completely integrated herself into their home, their very **life**. _What if Miko-chan wants her back?_ She wasn't quite sure what to think. Hinote might be Mikoto's daughter, but Kushina felt very much connected to her, and so did Minato.

* * *

After breakfast, Auntie guided me through building a lighting array. The way symbols interacted in a seallet seemed to obey specific symmetry groups, so I felt pretty at home constructing them. Not that I could tell Auntie–I was pretty sure they had never heard of group theory in these parts.

This array used five small seallets–one base seallet as centerpiece, another for receiving chakra, two more to modulate the input, and a fifth to convert the chakra to light. Pretty simple, as arrays go. Still, it was my first array! The culmination of months on months of study and hard work. I was very excited to test it out.

I put my right hand on the array and looked at Auntie, waiting for her to give me the "go" signal. I felt inside me for my chakra. _You'll work with me today, right?_ No answer came, of course. It churned on within my coils, as it always did. Yomogi-san had been particularly interested on the results of today. We had made some progress with our investigation on my chakra's peculiar violent nature, but she thought noting how it interacted with fūinjutsu would provide interesting data.

That in mind, she and Rin-chan were also here, having arrived while I double-checked my last seallet for mistakes. By now, I felt pretty comfortable under Yomogi-san's intense Byakugan stare–and not a moment too soon, as she seemed intent on observing every last detail of our little experiment.

"Whenever you're ready, Hinohino!"

I channeled my chakra through my palm. The seal **did** light up for a moment... then it exploded.

 _WHY!?_

* * *

From the notes of Hyūga Yomogi:

 _Today subject attempted channeling chakra (untransformed) through a simple sealing array_ _(fire-lightning type, chakraluminescence)_ _. The resulting explosion_ _(SEC 10_ _CT_ _)_ _seems to have stemmed from an attempt, by the seal, to modulate the subject's chakra input._

 _According to the resident authority, this modulation is supposed to occur by means of accumulation and release of excess chakra as necessary, smoothing over natural variations, over time, in a user's channeling. This reinforces the prior hypothesis that the subject's chakra exhibits volatility primarily when concentrated._

 _Attempting to use a seal made by another resulted in the destruction of the sealing paper when the subject's chakra met with residues of the original_ _seal-maker's_ _chakra._ _Once again the subject's chakra displays corrosive behavior in the presence of foreign chakra._

 _This bears further study._

* * *

 _Okay, I can do this._ Turned out I couldn't power seals myself–not without them going boom, at least. I was pretty upset for a while, till I concluded it didn't really matter–while I couldn't actually write many seals myself (soft wards like the one I had in my eyes should be ok, according to Auntie, since they didn't need chakra to power them), but I could do theorycraft. It was the most enjoyable part anyways, so there was no problem!

 _Otou-san will be disappointed_ , a part of me remembered. _Theorycraft isn't any good in_ _actual_ _battle_. I shook my head. _I'll just_ _work_ _harder_ _on my_ _bukijutsu, then!_ And so here I was, knocking at Kakashi-san's door, to beg him to help me train. I'd been feeling guilty about taking Auntie's time lately, ever since that talk with Rin-chan. Also, if Uncle's word was anything to go by, Kakashi-san was a genius.

The door opened.

"Please help me train!" I immediately threw myself to my knees.

"Oh, great, you're here too-" started a tired-sounding Kakashi. I could almost see his 'why are you dogeza'ing in front of my door' expression in my mind.

"Hey, who's this? Kakashi, my rival, you have a disciple already? Hello, disciple-chan!" said a loud, unknown voice.

I risked a glance up. A green-clad shinobi with **huge** eyebrows was looking down at me with a literally shining smile. Behind him, Kakashi-san looked equally divided between annoyance, amusement and momentary relief.

"Who are you, shinobi-san?" I managed.

"I am Might Guy, Kakashi's youthful rival!" Might-san was boisterous and energetic to a fault. He was also… doing a handstand? I just stared.

The noise of two hands clapping awoke me from my reverie. Kakashi-san looked excited.

"That's right, I was helping her train. I bet you can't help her more!" He intoned with barely restrained mirth.

A dangerous glint appeared in Guy's eyes.

"Alright, Disciple-chan! Follow me to a youthful training!" He jumped out the window. "Come on!" I heard from down there. "If you're afraid, I'll catch you!"

I looked at Kakashi-san questioningly. "Your problem now", he mouthed. How he managed to with that mask of his, I'll never understand. Maybe some kekkei genkai? Resigned to whatever gruesome fate his overcaffeinated rival had for me, I jumped.

* * *

All things considered, Guy was a pretty good, if a bit too tough, teacher. He seemed overjoyed to know I was training in bukijutsu ("not as fun as taijutsu", he said, "but still a youthful pursuit!") and he sounded pretty knowledgeable about the stuff.

We started on body training, and I quickly learned the answer to the question: "can someone's standards of what constitutes a good workout be harsher than otou-san's?" Yes. Oh so definitely yes. Guy-sensei–he'd been very hyped about being called that–had me doing handstand runs, jumping jack obstacle courses, and swimming against rapids.

There didn't seem to be any specific training regimen. Guy-sensei seemed to just **know** which of my muscles were rested enough, then managed to come up with some crazy activity that exercised them. He accompanied me on all of them, wearing deceptively small weights. _I wonder how those are made?_ Probably one of the production clans.

"You know, Hinote-chan. I think this I the first time Kakashi has ever challenged me on anything. You must be pretty special to him, for him to stake out his pride like this!" He gave me another one of his blinding smiles, which I now knew were part of his 'Nice Guy (TM) Pose'.

 _Really? Me, to Kakashi-san?_ I didn't know how to take that. And I didn't have long to consider it–Guy-sensei was already handing me a bō and starting me on drills.

* * *

It turned out to be one of the best work-outs I'd done in my life. Guy-sensei had said I had potential to be a bukijutsu master, which had me smiling all the way back. _Well, anyone would have potential if they trained as hard as he does._ Still, it was hope.

That's probably part of why I didn't noticed Orochimaru-sama until I bumped into him.

* * *

 **A/N:** Ok, so this is late. I apologize. Pokémon Go did **not** help, I assure you.

So we have the first appearance of Guy! I hope you like my take on him - I couldn't find that much material on a young Guy, so I took some inspiration from Lee... And some from my deranged brain, I guess.

We have another cliffhanger! Should probably help avoid another late chapter - I should have one particular friend poking me for a continuation if I tarry.

Also, shoutout to everyone who reviewed! We have broken ten reviews! Let's celebrate! Until I publish Chapter 9, any reviewer may ask me a question about the characters and the setting (I have made some changes, after all). I promise to answer it if it's not spoilery!

Thank you very much for reading!


	10. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto. Them's the breaks.**

 **Chapter 9**

"So we meet again, Uchiha-chan."

I recoiled. I felt a bit constricted, having those vertical pupils on me. If Orochimaru-sama had scared me the first time I'd met him, now that I knew his power he terrified me. I'd been calling him Ninja Voldemort in my head until now. _Can he tell?_ I hadn't heard of anything such as a casual mind reading jutsu, but one could never tell with the sannin.

"Good afternoon, Orochimaru-sama."

"Now, now, no need to be so stiff. I hear we are fellow disciples of Hokage-sama, no?" That thin smile from last time was back. "I hear you've made quite the impression on him"

"You praise me too much, Orochimaru-sama"

"Oh, hardly. It has been some time since I've seen someone quite as... promising." _Does this man ever blink?_ "Say, kouhai-chan. Since you've been working just **so** hard all this time, you must be in need of materials. I'd be delighted to lend you some. In fact, here you go"

He handed me a thick scroll ( _Where was he keeping it before?_ ), bound by a thin purple string. I was too nervous to say anything but "Thank you, Orochimaru-sama!" He disappeared without a trace. Yet, like some strange and horrifying version of the Cheshire Cat, I could still see that thin smile of his. After what seemed like an eternity, I blinked, and it too was gone.

* * *

I was distracted the entire way home. On one hand, getting a scroll from one of the Sannin was a rare oportunity. On the other, both Uncle and Auntie had made it very clear the man was not to be trusted–not that the clear snake motifs did him any favors in that regard.

Now that I was away from Orochimaru-sama and his very distracting gaze, the whole meeting smelled of a setup. Even tired as I was, I was still an apprentice shinobi, and thus hardly ever bumped into things while walking. Not to mention he was an S-class ninja. No one just bumps into someone like that; noticing and evading me shouldn't have even been a factor at that level.

Which just brought me back to the first point: I clearly had his attention, but was that a curse or a blessing? _And what will Uncle and Auntie think of this scroll? Will they take it from me?_ Part of me wanted to hide it to avoid confiscation. I was just **so** curious to look into the scroll's contents... but also afraid. Could he have hidden some trap in the scroll, perhaps a seal? Or even fake information.

In the end, my indecision settled it for me. I reached the house without having made a choice, and so met Uncle and Auntie with the scroll in plain view.

* * *

Minato was happy. He finally had some actual time off from the office, and he intended to spend it with Kushina. To top things off, Hinote was out of the house–much as he loved the girl, she seemed to have an oddly unfortunate timing to get up and barge into their room at night.

He arrived at the house and checked his hair. _Same mess as ever..._ Knocking on the door, he waited for his fiancé to arrive. When she did, he produced a single, pure white lily.

"For you, my dear." He gave her his best dashing smile.

Her face began to acquire that beautiful sunset color he loved so much.

"Minato!"

"I was passing by the Yamanaka shop and couldn't help myself..."

"Well, aren't you sweet and attentive. Well, we have the house all to ourselves..."

Minato swallowed.

He stared into her violet eyes, dove into those depths. She was looking at him too, and he could see the blaze inside, the flame he had noticed in her soul way back in their school days. Not that she hadn't changed at all; the tomboy from back then had become a stunning beauty. Minato felt like the luckiest man in the world.

"Oh! Hinohino!" Kushina's eyes widened.

The spell of that moment crashed into a million pieces.

* * *

Uncle and Auntie were talking in the front porch distractedly, though they had to know I was there – both were sensors, as far as I could tell. _Quite an overpowered ability. I wonder if there's a way to fool it?_ I'd have to ask Sarutobi-sensei when I next saw him.

"Hinohino! We weren't expecting you- so soon!" Someone who knew Auntie less would think she was perfectly composed–she **was** a ninja, after all, even if she wasn't particularly guarded right now–but I caught that stumble.

"Anyways, you look troubled. Anything happen?" Uncle was perceptive as always.

"So, ehm… I met Orochimaru-sama on my way back..." I fidgeted.

Auntie was immediately upon me.

"He didn't do anything to you, right?" Seeing her this worried, I couldn't believe I had ever thought of keeping this from her.

"He gave me this scroll…" I handed it to uncle. _Also, what kind of fool takes an unidentified scroll from a powerful ninja they have reasons to suspect is up to no good, then keeps it in secret?_ Tempting though it was, the scroll was not worth it.

At least not before having it checked.

* * *

Minato frowned. He hadn't found anything suspicious about the scroll. No seals, no poison, no subversive messages, no sneaky jutsu, no faulty methods. As far as he could tell, it was just as advertised – study material.

Orochimaru hadn't ever been one to take many students, though. Aside from Anko, Minato couldn't remember a single one. The man was all research and no teaching, quite different from his master. And it showed, in this. It read more like personal notes than a didactic textbook, with quick references, open questions and the occasional rambling.

The future Hokage set it down, sighing. He was overdue meeting with Kakashi about his Chidori. Ever since that live demonstration, they had been mulling over Hinote's question. The more Minato thought about it, the more sense it made. It was an assassination jutsu, but as his team knew very well (much to his chagrin and guilt), things went wrong in a battlefield. Any additional flexibility was welcome.

And then there was Rin. She hid it well, but the girl had taken Obito's death **hard**. Harder than anyone, save perhaps Kakashi. Minato was at a bit of a loss as to how to help her. No one ever taught shinobi how to help their colleagues deal with the mental and emotional attrition of the job, and there were no outside specialists to help either. _Perhaps it's time to expand Tsunade-hime's program, and include mental and emotional health in the training_. The Slug Princess herself could have used some help.

All of that compounded with the growing friction between the clans. Some of it was natural, as the village developed and space, economic opportunities, and political clout became disputed. On the other hand, something seemed strange with the speed at which the conflict grew. _Someone is agitating the clans. But who?_ The war was officially over, but black ops were still very common between the various hidden villages.

Minato sighed again when he looked at the immense pile of paperwork the Third had given him. He really needed to treasure his time with Kushina while he wasn't Hokage yet. Sure, Kage Bunshin could be used to lighten the work load, but Minato had found them to be ineffective for the more complex parts of political work. Kage Bunshin only spread the mind thinner, not further. And so, he was stuck with his pile of paperwork.

 _At least it's me here_ , he thought with a sudden chill. _Who knows what Orochimaru might get up to, with the power of the Hokage_. That man was trouble.

He stared at the scroll.

Hinote had tried to hide it, but she'd been very excited to look at its contents. _Something is wrong with this girl_ , he thought, amused. He remembered, a couple of weeks before, how his four year old adopted niece had asked him to meet the Hokage–not because of his battle prowess, or to ask a favor, but to discuss his old writings on the nature of Chakra.

"Teeny bibliophage", Kakashi had called her, and with reason. Every bit of time she could, she spent in the library or in his study, reading. _I guess there is no harm in it_ , he decided. Better give her access to a safe book rather than risk giving her the impression it contained some arcane knowledge she could only obtain from its writer. _Also, it_ _ **is**_ _pretty good_ , he admitted begrudgingly.

* * *

I spent the rest of the week studying, mostly. I was making progress in my studies of fūinjutsu, albeit slowly–being unable to put the concepts to practice was a hurdle. Still, I was becoming more and more proficient at constructing simple, bidimensional arrays. Auntie said I could start helping her with explosive tags pretty soon, which was very, very exciting.

There was also the matter of my newly-acquired study materials. Ninja Voldemort's text was quite interesting. It read more like the study notes of a genius student than a textbook, and so required quite a bit of work to decipher. There was no clear formatting to it, and the writing some times bordered on the cryptic. Works from other writers were referenced in passing, and it fell to me to locate and consult them.

Thankfully, most of what I needed was available in the library, and I had practically moved there (much to the amusement of Kakashi-san). Still, I had to consult with Uncle on the meaning of a passage more than once a day.

Which brought me to another point: uncle was **smart**. Not book smart, necessarily, but a weird sort of intuitive genius. He seemed to know most of the concepts referenced on an instinctual level, like some sort of blond ninja Ramanujan. He wasn't always the best at communicating it, however–sometimes all I could get from him was "Well, you just move your chakra like a tiger, you know?", which did not help a lot.

There were a couple of pauses to my studies, however. Rin-chan and Yomogi-san had decided we should have our sessions more frequently, since Rin-chan had a mission coming up next week. We did some more precise experiments with my chakra's corrosive nature, but mostly focused on its interaction with medical chakra. After all, this was the part that required Rin-chan to be present.

I was especially nervous once they started asking me to channel chakra **into** Rin-chan. She said it was safe, and she knew what she was doing, but I still remembered what had happened to Haku. I flat out refused to do it, in fact, until Yomogi-san told me investigating it was the only way to avoid further incidents. Either way, I didn't sleep that night.

Yomogi-san looked like she had got some interesting data out of it, but she hadn't yet shared with me. Didn't want to influence me, she said. _As close to a blind study as we'll get, I guess_. Chakra had a mental component, after all, and one's view of it could influence its behavior in major ways. I just hoped we weren't taking too much of Rin-chan's time… she did have that mission soon, and needed to prepare.

Another source of my interludes (this one unplanned) was Guy-san. He seemed to have taken a liking to me, and came by almost daily to train. Which was quite welcome–I needed to keep up with my bukijutsu if I was ever to fulfill otou-san's expectations. It wasn't like I could use ninjutsu, dōjutsu, or even fūinjutsu, so I had to lean on hand-to-hand techniques for combat.

I liked to think I was making progress. We were still doing drills on basic maneuvers, and my age limited how much conditioning I could do, but I felt my forms were improving day by day, bit by bit. I felt stronger, more prepared to face the world. It was a pretty great sensation, even if it came accompanied by muscle aches. _Beats chemo any day_.

* * *

 **A/N:** Well, this took some time... No idea what to say about it. I'm still not perfectly satisfied, but I've already taken way too long.

Reviews are very very welcome, as are any guesses. What could Ninja Voldemort be up to? How long a game is he playing, if he's playing a game at all?


	11. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Maybe if I'd posted more frequently?**

 **Chapter 10**

Rin was surprised, to say the least, to meet Minato-sensei when she got out of her house in the morning. It's not every day the prospective Hokage finds the time to meet with chūnin, even if they were his students.

"Good morning, sensei!" She blurted out.

"Good morning, Rin", he answered, ruffling her hair. "You're awfully riled up this morning."

"Hey, the future Hokage just ambushed me at my doorstep! Who would react calmly to that?"

As soon as the question left her mouth, she groaned inwardly. There was one very, very obvious answer, one she of all people should have accounted for.

"Kakashi", Minato-sensei said, and laughed. His was a loud, open laugh. It made one want to laugh too. "Anyways, what are you doing with Hinote's chakra inside you?" He raised an eyebrow.

 _He knew. Of course he did._ Sneaking this past Minato-sensei had been a pipe dream. His bingo book entry made it clear he was one of the greatest combat shinobi ever to grace Konoha, and a fūinjutsu master rivaled by few, but all that sometimes made one forget he was also a very acute sensor... a mistake most enemies made only once.

"It's- we've been- I-" She stumbled, feeling her cheeks flush.

"Rin, have you been experimenting on **yourself**? You know better", sensei admonished.

"But sensei, I can do this! Can't you see it? I've found a way to contain it, keep it from causing damage. We could use this to find a way to help her!"

"I know you want to help", he said, "But think about how Hinote will feel if this hurts you in any way. I don't doubt your abilities. You're my student, after all. I just worry you're being a bit reckless. You won't be able to help anyone if you get yourself hurt. Remember, as a medic-nin, you need to care for your health as well."

She wasn't quite a medic-nin—she took front line missions, and trained in combat ninjutsu—but she was the closest thing her team had to one, and she did know the tenets passed down by Tsunade-hime. Still...

"I need to do something, sensei! I can't just leave it alone and do nothing! Not again..."

She lowered her head. It felt so frustrating, being so limited in how she could help her teammates, her friends. Ninja died in war. She knew that. And yet, when she'd been the one to get captured, leaving her friend to die because she hadn't been able to do anything but **cut his eye out while he lay there**. She felt her own eyes becoming moist, and sensei wrapped her in a hug.

"This isn't just about Hinote, is it? Rin. Don't beat yourself up. You're a great ninja. Never tell yourself otherwise. You've done a lot, both for Hinote and for the village as a whole."

Yes, she'd helped, but it wasn't enough. She needed to do _more_. Hinote-chan was such a precocious girl, sometimes Rin couldn't believe she was still a toddler. Yet she **was** four. And at four, she lived wrapped in clothing, afraid of touching anyone. _And there's nothing I can do. Such a great medic I make._

* * *

After my daily bukijutsu drills, Guy-san asked me if I'd race him to the dango shop. I was quick to accept. Though I didn't have Itachi-nii's sweet tooth, I was still quite fond of his favorite food.

This particular shop (to which Guy-san beat me soundly) was located behind the Uchiha compound, and in my mind I could already see Itachi-nii stopping by for dango after school.

There was a single girl there. She had the looks of a tween, or what passed for one among ninja. She had violet hair and brown eyes, and she wore a fishnet shirt, which looked a bit funny coupled with her mouth stuffed full of dango.

"What do we have here? Fresh meat!" She managed to exclaim through a veritable dozen of dango, eyeing me hungrily. "You got a student already, Guy? I thought you needed to make jōnin for that!"

"It's never too early to cultivate the flames of youth!" Answered Guy-san. "Why Mitarashi-san, you're welcome to join me and Hinote-chan in our youthful training!" _Mitarashi_ _? Really?_ _Such a cheap pun._

 _"_ Oh! So you're Hinote-chan! I've heard lots about you from my teacher. He says you're 'quite a gifted sapling', which is reeeeally high praise, coming from him. Oh! By the way, I'm Mitarashi Anko." _Groan._ "Let's get along!"

And with that, she took to the roofs with a jump, disappearing soon after. Which left the question: who was this mysterious shinobi with an interest on me, a random toddler? Should I be worried?

"Who is Mitarashi-san's teacher, Guy-sensei?" Guy-san was partial to being addressed as "teacher". He was probably itching to make jōnin and get his own team.

"You have a keen eye, Disciple-chan! Mitarashi-san is an apprentice to none other than Orochimaru-sama, of the Sannin! To catch his notice is... notable." He seemed a bit less enthusiastic at that last part.

 _Him again?_ I had met the man not once, but twice, in the last few weeks, and now had stumbled into his disciple, to whom he had apparently talked about me enough that she remembered my name. For one known as the most withdrawn among the three, he was popping up way too frequently.

There wasn't much I could do about it, however, and thus far all my interactions with the legendary shinobi had been amicable, though creepy. Which meant this was dango time!

* * *

Once back home, I delved into my studies. Itachi-nii was supposed to start school in just over a year from now, and I was determined to follow. As an Uchiha (even an exiled one), I needed to get good grades, and my survival knowledge was lacking.

I'd never been one for hiking, or botany for that matter (not that botany from my previous world would have helped much), so I had to start from zero. I couldn't do actual survival training before the academy, so reading up on the plants and animals of the Fire Country was the best I could do.

There was a lot to learn, too: Konoha and its surroundings had interesting fauna and flora—the Forest of Death alone boasted seven species of venomous snakes, plus three different types of constrictors.

Then there was the flora: poisonous leaves, berries, barks, and barbs abounded, but what most interested me was the Konoha Wasp Berry, a **venomous tree** which stung nearby animals who rustled it with its long vines, so as to fertilize the soil around it.

 _I wonder if I can learn some poison use skills…_ It was highly unlikely that I would be given any practical training on it at the moment, but I could research it. O _ne more subject to add to the list._

"The list", as it were, was growing faster than I could study, which was wholly unavoidable—there was just too much to learn in this world, if I was to make the mark. As otou-san often said, an Uchiha must always excel.

"I did it!" A very excited young man exclaimed in a cave, somewhere. _I've just about gotten used to this body… Just a bit more… I'll be able to meet you guys in just a bit more… Rin… Kakashi…!_

"You did quite well… Yet, can you take a dump? Eh?"

"Shut up, Guruguru."

* * *

 **A/N:** Sorry for disappearing! Life is tough, adulting is hard. This one is short (and cliffhangery), but I have Chapter 11 mostly written and should post it next week or so. I also already know what to do with 12, so I'm on a roll!

Reviews are very very welcome, especially on my characterization.


	12. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Naruto is his own person and can speak for himself.**

 **Warning: This one gets a bit dark. Mostly death and violence. See the author's note for sanitized summary.**

 **Chapter 11**

Kakashi frowned. This "routine" mission had gone downhill very quickly. What had started as a quick reconnaissance of the border with Kusagakure had turned into a nightmare when Rin, who he was supposed to meet after his last pass through the less used country routes, had failed to appear.

And now he was miles away from home, infiltrating a base full of kiri-nin to rescue her. _I'm sorry, Obito… I'll find her._ He silently bypassed another sentinel. He had managed to remain undetected so far, using both his speed advantage and the sharingan to exploit shift changes, moments of inattention and the environment to his advantage.

Ahead of him, Pakkun led the way, following his teammate's scent. The pug had been Kakashi's first contract, and an invaluable ally during the war. This was far from the first time Kakashi had trusted the ninken's sensitive nose for tracking, and hopefully wouldn't be the last.

They reached the lowest level before Pakkun signaled to Kakashi he had found the source of Rin's scent. It came from a conspicuously unguarded cell, just at the end of the corridor, just at a corner. _Something is fishy._ In fact, the whole infiltration had been a bit too easy. Kakashi was **good** , and he knew it, but infiltrating a base full of Kiri ANBU undetected was the sort of thing Minato-taichō pulled.

He approached the cell carefully, keeping his ears and nosed primed to detect any enemies coming from around the bend. None came. The door was simple to unlock—he'd filched some keys from a room, having caught its sole occupant in a genjutsu—but what lay behind it wasn't as easy to deal with. _Rin!_

She lay on the floor unclothed, her face bloodless, hastily applied fūinjutsu crawling across her torso. From her position, she appeared to have been heaved onto the floor after whatever seal had been applied to her. _Minato-taich_ _ō_ _would know what this is._

Kakashi had seen some horrific sights during the war. Men and women mutilated beyond recognition by jutsu and blade both, strewn across the battlefield. Towns torched and sacked, either by conquering ninja, or by the armies that inevitably followed the shinobi onslaught. Yet all that hadn't prepared him for seeing another comrade broken.

But there was no time for this. He checked her pulse, found it thankfully normal, then reached into his pack and retrieved a soldier pill, which he placed on her tongue. It wouldn't be the best for her recovery, but they needed to get out **now**.

Kakashi retrieved what appeared to be her clothes and threw them at her just as she began to regain consciousness. _I found her, Obito. I'm getting her home, just like I promised._ And pity any Kiri-nin who got in his way.

* * *

Rin was not having a good day. She'd been kidnapped on a mission **again** , and now Kakashi had risked his life to rescue her. **Again**. The timing had been terrible; Minato-sensei had been out on an extended leave to negotiate with Iwagakure, for a more permanent peace treaty between them.

The war between the great countries was supposedly over, but the villages still fought, with black ops and sometimes overt clashes. Konoha had mostly stayed out of it, but this kidnapping signaled Kiri was still baring its fangs… geopolitics were complicated. She didn't envy Minato-sensei his future job.

There was also the question of the mysterious sealwork around her torso. It had looked familiar, but where had she seen it? Somewhere in Kushina-san's books, she was sure. It was getting hard to think, with the blood loss and the exhaustion, but something told her she needed to figure it out.

Rin felt dizzy. Still, she was moving much too well for someone in a shape as bad as she'd suspected she was. Perhaps her injuries hadn't been as serious as she'd first thought. The soldier pill would have helped, but she should be coming down from it soon.

 _Maybe it's love making me stronger_. She peered over at Kakashi, who looked every bit as tired as she felt. And with good reason—he had probably rushed to her rescue as soon as he'd found her missing, and followed her all the way to Kirigakure's outskirts.

"We're being followed," he said. "More than twenty, probably jōnin level. Can you run faster?" _I have to._ Whatever Kirigakure wanted with her, she couldn't let them get it. She reached deep inside herself for whatever scraps of chakra her exhausted body would provide.

And then, a surge of wild chakra spread from her chest, burning through her coils with blazing intensity. _Kill them_ , came the thought, unbidden. _Kill all of them, for doing this._ It felt a bit like Hinote's chakra, but more violent and entwined with malice.

Rin gasped. _Where did this come from?_ For a moment, she'd desired nothing more than to take her pursuers and **break them open and let their blood flow everywhere**. She shook her head. _It's a stupid plan_ , she reminded herself. _I can't take on twenty j_ _ō_ _nin._ She noticed Kakashi looking at her, concerned.

"I'm okay." _I can't drag him down._ Still, the temptation to fight the kiri-nin was driving to distraction.

The answer came to her suddenly: they'd sealed a tailed beast within her. Now that she knew, she could feel the malevolence seeping through the seal, mixing with her emotions. _Damn Kiri ninja. I should_ _ **kill destroy maim**_ _all of them_. She shook her head. _Focus. Why would they do this? Why give up their weapon?_

She kept thinking on it, while they leapt from tree to tree. They were almost back within the Country of Fire, and should make it to Konoha in a few hours. And then… _And then what? This seal is so shoddy, it's liable to burst inside the village._

 _Oh no._

* * *

Obito was running as fast as he could. _Rin and Kakashi need me! Wait for me, guys, I will rescue you!_ He wasn't quite looking forward to explaining the creepy old guy claiming to be Uchiha Madara, but he really wanted to see his friends. And if Zetsu was right, they were in trouble, they needed his help!

Then came the vision of Rin, a grimace of pain on her face, an arm sticking out of her chest. He shook his head. _What was that?_ He rushed to the clearing where Zetsu claimed they were, just in time to see Kakashi and Rin drop, connected by the white-haired boy's arm no more.

He ignored Kakashi, who was sporting burns on his right arm, along with a few nasty cuts, and hurried to Rin. _She can't be dead_ , he told himself, looking at her face. She wasn't breathing. He screamed at the sky, a desperate howl of anguish and sorrow.

His eye hurt for a moment, but he barely noticed with the pain in his heart. It hurt more, way more, than having half his body crushed. _This can't be happening._ Madara's words came to him: "There is no light without shadow. This life is made of suffering and emptiness. There is no escape from this cycle of suffering."

He looked around him, at the Kiri ANBU who were part of this travesty, this falsehood. He looked at them, and he slaughtered them. Yet it did nothing to soothe his pain. _Where am I?_ Screams echoed in the forest, and blood soaked the ground. _**Where am I?**_

Where could this be, a place where Rin was dead, Kakashi had killed her. If there was any good in the world, how could this happen? _This can't have happened it can't it can't._ Another shinobi advanced towards Obito, and flinched when the Uchiha turned to him. Soon he was also dead, his face frozen in a rictus of dread.

 _I see… I'm in hell._

* * *

 **A/N:** This one was a bit hard to write. Nowhere as hard as chapter 10, though. Tune in next time to see what happens now! Reviews are welcome! I want to hear what you think of this. Any guesses on what's next? And no, "Chapter 12" doesn't count. Chapter 12 is mostly written, by the way! Is this the legendary "buffer" some speak of in legends?

It's also a bit longer than this one, so maybe I'm getting my pacing back?

 **Quick Summary:** Rin and Kakashi were on a routine mission when Rin was captured and taken to a base just outside Kirigakure. Minato was unavailable doing diplomacy with Iwa. Kakashi and Pakkun go to rescue her.

Rin correctly concludes she has been made into a jinchuriki, and that the Kiri-nin want to release the beast in Konoha.

Obito arrives at the scene in time to see Rin taking a Raikiri to her chest. He kills the surrounding kiri-nin, mad with grief and rage.


	13. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: As ever, I do not own Naruto, nor do I own anyone. Hinote is her own fictional person, thank you very much.  
**

 **Small warning: creepy Orochimaru. Skip past the asterisks to avoid him... though I personally find the scene hilarious.**

 **Chapter 12**

I was having a **very** weird dream. In it, I saw a short-haired young man. He wore an open white shirt and a huge purple obi, with a sword hanging off it. He looked quite familiar… _Itachi-nii_ , I realized. He was much older, maybe fifteen or sixteen, but the similarities were undeniable.

From the floor came a burst of snakes, which receded to reveal Orochimaru-sama. He shuffled to Itachi-nii and draped himself lazily across his shoulders. A long tongue came out of his mouth, and licked Itachi-nii's earlobe.

"Hey… want to come and learn how to summon my snake?"

Now, this would have normally been a nice dream to have–they were both handsome men, and the pun was deliciously terrible–but this was my four year old twin and a creepy shinobi Tom Riddle. _Too close to home_.

I woke up to a flurry of noise around the house. Drawers were hastily opened and closed, and thirty seconds later a disheveled Auntie was hurrying to the door, accompanied by an owl masked Anbu-san and Uncle, whose hair somehow looked more orderly when he didn't have time to brush it.

"Auntie…?" I asked, blearily.

"Oh shit! She woke up. You go ahead, I'll catch up." Uncle was in my room in a moment, and I could see in his face something terrible had happened. "Go back to sleep, Hinote-chan", he said. "We didn't mean to wake you up." I couldn't help but notice he hadn't told me what was happening. Still, he had one eye on the door, and I couldn't bear to keep him when he was like that.

"Okay, uncle. You can go; I'll be fine."

A few seconds later, the house was empty again. I considered going back to sleep, but this whole situation had put me into high alert, so I decided to consider my dream instead. _Where did that come from?_ I realized, mortified, that it had probably come from some art piece of mine. Thankfully not one of the more risqué ones… I didn't need Orochimaru's "snake" in my mind.

As I was trying to forget **that** charming perspective, it occurred to me I might have drawn fanart of myself. Depending on how big a part the original Hinote played in the series, I might have drawn more than one piece… maybe explicit ones. _Threesome with Orochimaru oh nope nope nope not going there._

That was a very disturbing idea.

 _I'm not dwelling on that. Nosiree. Let's go study instead._ _Maybe take a cold shower or ten._

* * *

Konoha never really slept. It was the nature of their work that shinobi needed to come and go at all hours, even in the dead of night. ANBU Headquarters, in particular, was more active under cover of night.

Still, tonight was an exceptional occurrence. Some of the highest security protocols in Konoha, accessible only to the Hokage himself, had been activated, turning ANBU Headquarters into a silent flurry of activity, as all the elite shinobi sought to hurry and evade notice at the same time.

It was paradoxical, that the moment which demanded quickest action from Konoha's elite also meant there need to be utter secrecy. This sort of alarm was only raised for S-class secrets, and thus it all had to be done covertly, beyond the notice of anyone outside the Hokage's utmost confidence. Most of the responding ANBU weren't even aware of what they were acting for.

They were all jōnin, and HQ, with its many discreet entrances and high powered security seals, had been designed precisely to allow for such emergencies, but it still made for an almost comical scene. Throughout Konoha, detectors were being checked, enhanced, traps activated, contacts reached, seals replaced.

At the center of it all, in a room deep within the bowels of the Leaf, Takumina Takumi, the dog masked ANBU Commander, stood by Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō, who talked in hushed tones.

"This is an opportunity. Let us extract it and seal it within one of my Root shinobi. The girl is a lost cause, Hiruzen, and we **need** this power. Iwa and Kiri are readying their kunai as we speak. Do you think Ōnoki will stand by quietly for long? Don't let your emotions cloud your mind."

"I have made my decision, Danzō, and it is final. Konoha does not sacrifice its shinobi in cold blood. How would we be better than the Bloody Mist if we killed one of our own for a weapon? This matter is settled."

"Hiruzen. How many more will die if the war picks up again? This is an opportunity that fate saw fit to hand us, to strengthen our village and take back what the Shodaime squandered. Additionally, while the loss of a shinobi is… regrettable, even should she survive, she will not be combat capable. It would be a mercy."

"Danzō, my decision stands. I know you have only the best interests of the village at heart, and I appreciate all you do to help keep it strong and stable. But we must not just focus on the survival of the village; we must ensure that it stays Konoha. There is no meaning in sacrificing the soul to protect the body."

Takumina stirred, claiming the attention of both men.

"Hokage-sama, I must call to your attention that Kirigakure will certainly claim we have taken their bijū. We must ready countermeasures, especially since both Iwa and Sunagakure will object to what they will see as a power grab."

"Hm… It did take a lot to bring Ōnoki to the discussions table. We can't have him decide to back out of our agreement so soon after we managed to affirm it." The Hokage sighed. "Okay, gentlemen. Let us talk troop distributions."

The Konoha ANBU were in for a lot of work.

* * *

It wasn't until the following day that I was told what had happened. Auntie and Uncle had returned exhausted in the evening, so I'd had to hold in my questions. Worried and curious as I was, they weren't so much conscious as sleepwalking.

 _Calm down_ , I told myself _._ _If there was any danger, they wouldn't have just returned home to sleep_. Didn't keep me from accidentally burning a few sheets of my annotations, though. _Damn this chakra of mine._

Uncle woke up looking like he should probably rest for another week or two, but Auntie was already at full revs. _Classic Auntie._ I wasn't going to get anything out of Zombie!Uncle, I knew, so I immediately turned to our resident Perpetual Motion Shinobi. She must have felt my gaze, because she put on a difficult face.

"…Me and Minato went to see Kakashi and Rin. They've just returned from a mission, and they got hurt."

 _How hurt?_

Auntie was keeping something from me. Shinobi got hurt all the time, especially during a war like the one we had just finished, and there was little point in concealing it. Yes, I was just four, yet I had already begun training to kill people. So why the hesitation?

 _Please be alive._

And why would they be that exhausted after a simple, if prolonged, hospital visit? Neither of them were iryō-nin, so they hadn't been involved in the treatment, so it had to be psychological. Something that could make two war veterans turn out like that?

 _Please be alive._

I sobbed.

"Which of them?"

"Hinohino?" Auntie had a panicked streak to her voice.

"Which of them is dead?" I was crying now.

In my mind, I saw Rin-chan, always so kind, always attentive, voluntarily spending her time and risking her own well-being to help find a solution to my chakra defect.

Then there was Kakashi-san. Grumpy, always late, and a tad arrogant, but who always babysat me, helped with my training, and introduced me to Guy-san. _What is Guy-san going to feel like?_

"What? No, Hinohino, they are alive dattebane! We can go see them as soon as the doctors say they can receive visitors, alright?" Auntie had enveloped me in a hug and started caressing my hair.

 _They're alive._ A small part of me noticed she had said nothing about whether they would be **okay** , but the rest of me was too relieved to listen. _They're alive_.

* * *

Rin came awake feeling overall terrible. She opened her eyes and harsh light flooded her eyes. She closed them again. The smell of herbs and the infusion of medical chakra, palpable even to non-sensor types, told her she was in the hospital.

It felt comforting, and familiar. Like she had before, when wounded in the war, she let herself bask in the feeling of home, safety and peace. Soon, however, she had to face reality.

 _What happened?_ She remembered being attacked. She'd been taken from the meeting point by enemy shinobi. She couldn't recall any details, and the memories were slow to unspool. The torture, or what she had thought was torture, was thankfully hazy. Though she had told no one, she still woke up in fits over her last round.

Then there was the escape.

 _I asked Kakashi to kill me_ , she realized _._ He had refused. _Then I made him… Poor Kakashi_. He didn't deserve to have killed her; he already blamed himself so much for Kannabi Bridge, when it was really her fault. She'd been the one to get captured. But if she'd succeeded, why was she alive?

She remembered the chidori, coming up bright as she fell; Kakashi's surprised face, when he noticed she was in the way. Then pain in her chest, followed by a tingling all over her body. Then more pain.

 _What about the bijū?_ It all made no sense.

She was interrupted by the sound of someone entering the room.

"Rin? I felt you wake up. Do you need anything?" It was Minato-sensei.

"What… happened?" She manage to croak out. Her throat felt raw. She hadn't noticed earlier, but it felt parched.

Minato-sensei walked to the corner of the room and retrieved a cup of water, which he handed her. It was lukewarm, but it felt good to her dry lips.

"Long story short, Kakashi managed to stop the chidori just before it pierced your sternum. I guess all the training paid off, huh?" He gave an uneasy smile, so different from his usual sunny ones. She handed him the cup back. "Still, you were in cardiac arrest when we found you." His face fell.

 _Then I'm lucky to be alive._ A stopped heart, on the field, with no support, was generally a death sentence. What made no sense was why her heart had stopped. If lightning chakra residue could do that, it'd be one of the main assassination techniques employed by shinobi.

Rin was in no shape to consider this, however. She was already feeling tired again.

"Sleep tight," she heard, before drifting off once more.

* * *

"Do we still have no idea what that seal on her heart was?" Sarutobi Hiruzen puffed a ring of smoke.

Minato shook his head. "We don't, and I doubt we will. Hinote's chakra did a number on it; there is very little to go on."

"You have some crazy students, Minato-sama. Keeping a blob of **that** in her chest? It burned her myocardium like acid! The amount of chakra the seal absorbed probably saved her life." It was hard to read the ANBU iryō-nin under the bat mask, but to Minato she looked impressed.

The three sat in a small, warded room inside the Hokage Tower. Any meeting regarding the Sanbi's new host was treated as S-rank secret—need to know only.

This was Konoha's policy on jinchūriki, especially since the kidnapping attempt on Kushina: the fewer people knew, the better for everyone, especially the demon's warden. _Never mind that Kushina just spilled the secret to a kid._

"The seal itself is a surprise," she continued. "I have no idea how someone could place a seal on a heart." Seals were vulnerable to the body's natural chakra flow. Any seal that could survive a flux was as strong the heart's must have been very advanced.

Minato thought on it. "That Kiri has a fūinjutsu specialist capable of such a feat is very concerning." It was flabbergasting, in fact. Kirigakure was never known for its sealing arts.

"They must have hired some nukenin. But who, since the purge of Uzushio, has the skill at such level? This bears investigating." The Sandaime's tone had a sort of finality to it; he had come to a decision. "Meet me in my office, Minato. "ANBU-san, thank you for your time. You are dismissed."

"Hai, sir!"

* * *

 **A/N:** I know I said I had this one well in hand, but boy was it troublesome. I rewrote the whole thing twice, and I still have a nagging feeling it isn't up to par. But I have been here before, with my writing, and I know that if I let myself obsess over this any longer I will stop writing. So here you go! I hope it's to your liking.

Reviews are very welcome! I would very much like to know your thoughts on this. And yes, I have had the Orochimaru dream scene planned in one form or another since very early in Firebrand's conception. As Hinote says, it is just something delightful to have bouncing around in your head, isn't it? You're welcome!


	14. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I am the proud owner of myself. Not of Naruto, however.**

 **Chapter 13**

Three days passed before I was allowed to visit Rin-chan. The sight of her on a hospital bed, looking more fragile than I had ever seen her, made me want to cry. I had spent a long time in such a state in my previous life, but it I had never been in the opposite situation, to see someone I cared about like this. It was a brutal reminder of what a world we lived in. A world where children were sent to fight in the front lines, to be POW's before they made fifteen. _I was pretty sure this was a manga for children…_

In a corner near her bed, slept an unkempt Kakashi, who I'd been told had been here day in and day out. His masked face was buried in one of those books he always carried around. Given the look of disapproval on Auntie's face, I assumed it was something racy. I sneaked a peek at the cover: **Icha Icha** **Paradise** (Make Out Paradise, in English). _Ooh. Spicy._ I would have to give it a thorough look over later.

Seeing as Rin-chan was also asleep, I left my offering of chadango (homemade with auntie's help–I was ever so proud) by her bedside. This was okay with me; Auntie had told me Rin-chan needed a lot of rest, so I had brought some fūinjutsu annotations I had intended to go over for some time. They came from some old scrolls she had used as a kid, back in Uzushio, and were full of her playful drawings.

It was a couple of hours before the room's resident woke up. "Good morning, Rin-chan!" I exclaimed, but much as I wished to, didn't dare bound to her–she looked very ill _(and I know better, Auntie. You don't need to tense like that)_. Giving her a big smile would have to suffice.

"Oh. Hinote-chan!? You're here too!?" She shot a surprised look at Auntie, who gave her a shake of her head. There was probably more to that than just the look, but whatever message had been passed, it was beyond my abilities to intercept. _They're hiding something._

 _Then again, in this village, who isn't?_ Another thing about this world: almost everyone around me was a part of the higher echelons of a whole village of black ops agents. All around Konoha, people had daily conversations about subjects so far above my clearance it wasn't even funny. Still, it irked me to be left out of the loop. _I should get some material on codes and secret messages... I wonder if Ot_ _ou_ _-sama would_ _help_ _me?_

I discarded the idea. Otou-sama's job as chief of the police was precisely investigating and dealing with leaks and defections, endemic problems to a village built on secrets. As his daughter, me nosing in on village secrets would certainly reflect very badly on him. I couldn't tarnish his reputation like that. **I wouldn't.**

Right now, I could focus on Rin-chan, who had found the now cold dango and was sharing them with Kakashi. The look on her face _…_ that was a smitten girl if I'd ever seen one. _So cute! Is it okay if I ship you guys?_ The message it sent was soothing:

 _Even here, in the aftermath of suffering and tragedy, we can find love for each other._

* * *

It took a month for Rin-chan to be released. Konoha's iryō-nin were the best in the world, but still not quite up to my old world's highest standards, and her injuries had been very severe. After she was out, however, she needed somewhere to stay.

She'd been living alone since she became a chūnin–from many adults' attempts to talk around the issue, I gathered her parents disapproved of her line of work, and their relationship was strenuous at best. Still, she required care for the next few months, and protection (Uncle had told me it was because she might get kidnapped again, but again there had to be more to it; who would invade Konoha to kidnap a random chūnin?).

Rin-chan spent a delightful week living with us, but the situation couldn't last. There was barely space for me in their house, and her moving in had necessitated me to move my futon to the study. I didn't mind much (easier access to the books? Sign me up!) but it was inconvenient for Uncle, who needed somewhere to work in peace (and secrecy, perhaps).

None of that made it any less surprising when Kakashi, of all people, offered to move in with her. I would have thought this would have fallen to one of her female friends, like Yomogi-san… but there the Hyūga strictness struck: although Yomogi-san was a member of the main family, that actually meant her life was not quite her own. She'd been quite busy lately, as she was nearing twenty years old and that meant she must marry soon.

Kakashi and Rin-chan made for interesting housemates. With his pay as a jōnin, plus her injury pension (I wasn't aware Konoha even **had** injury pensions; when I questioned him, Uncle said they were rarely awarded), they could afford a small apartment not too far from Uncle and Auntie's. It was a nice neighborhood, although being so near ANBU Headquarters was a bit unnerving.

Rin-chan couldn't very well keep helping me with my chakra in her weakened state, so for now it was just Yomogi-san and me. They were silent sessions–while the Hyūga medic seemed like a nice person, she was about as talkative as Kakashi–but productive ones. Yomogi-san had surprised me by announcing she had made "major progress" since our last sessions on deciphering what my chakra did to living tissue. I had thought she'd have slowed down, since there were no new data and she had omiai to attend, but that was a genius for you.

Which brought me, once again, to her situation: she was expected to marry, leaving her career behind to become homemaker to some male shinobi who had not half of her talent. It was baffling. And worrisome. I was the child of the clan leader, after all, and while the Uchiha weren't quite as stringent on this, Okaa-sama's career had simply ended when she married Otou-sama.

 _At least we don't marry siblings to preserve the blood… though, now that I think about it, maybe we do close relatives. Ew. Ew._

* * *

As the day of the Rinne festival drew nearer, so did the date of Uncle's official ascension as Hokage, as well as his (overdue) marriage to Auntie. There was an almost electric atmosphere in the house. Even Kakashi and Rin-chan, who seemed to get somber whenever the festival of the deceased was mentioned, ended getting swept up in Auntie's frantic preparations.

I, for one, was more interested in perfecting my dango making skills, in hopes of capturing my cute nii-san. I didn't see him as much since I moved, and I wanted to give him a special present. Knowing he had a legendary taste for sweets western and Japanese, I readied myself.

Auntie was my main teacher, but sometimes I also visited Rin-chan for guidance. She was a different sort of cook than Auntie or Okaa-sama; where Kushina would eyeball quantities and come up with variations on the spot, and Okaa-sama knew thousands of dishes by heart, Rin-chan had carefully annotated recipes, some inherited and some bartered for, which she followed to a tee.

 _Not that any such sophistication is needed for simple dango, but hey, baby steps._ I'd get there some day, and never have to eat takeout again! Even though they are super convenient for studying marathons… _no! Bad Hinote! That way lies a life of subsisting on cup ramen. Ugh. No offense to Auntie_ , I added.

Mitarashi Anko-san, as was expected, somehow got wind that I was making dango, and thus dropped by to specifically demand some. _Rude_. Still, she traded a plateful for a one hour lesson on reading body language, which I appreciated very much, as it wasn't a skill commonly taught to children before the academy. _I'll take her up on it again_.

Orochimaru's apprentice definitely had energy, and in spades. She bounced from here to there, always exploring her environment. It was actually somewhat surprising she had such fine observational competence, but something told me Anko-san was nothing if not surprising.

She also seemed to know **everyone** and their grandmother; her wild personality had an undefinable charm to it, a raw charisma which made me sure she would make a great commander in the future, if not the present. _Man, the students of the Sannin are all amazing. First Uncle, and now Anko-san…_

On the day of the festival, I went to the Uchiha compound, to give Itachi-nii my holiday surprise. He was spoiled by Okaa-sama's cooking every day, but his sweet tooth wasn't that selective and he accepted my offerings of sisterly love with one of his sunny smiles. _I missed you, onii-chan!_ He was so cute, I wanted to squeeze him to death.

Mitarashi Anko-san dropped by as well, to deliver a small scroll from Orochimaru. "A small gift from an intriguing lady", said a short note attached. Uncle had looked the scroll over, of course, but it was perfectly innocent. It contained a problem:

 **How much chakra efficiency is it possible to attain in the production of a flame equivalent to the Gōkakyū, using multiple ninja?**

A complex question, to say the least. Other shinobi could add more flame, and fuel the flames with wind techniques, but there was a point of diminishing returns to cooperation, even before one took in consideration the difficulty of coordinating multiple jutsu. _Itadakimasu!_

Guy-san gave me a horribly unfashionable uniform, which he insisted I wear during our training sessions. It consisted of a green, long sleeved jumper, with green long pants and orange leg warmers. I had never been too fashion conscious (though Okaa-sama **had** managed to inculcate some of it into my head), but not even I would wear this… were it not for the fact that he had me walking around upside down anyways, so how much more embarrassing could it really get?

Plenty, as it turned out. Kakashi looked a strange mixture of derisive and horrified when he first saw me, upended green duckling following upended green shishō. In any case, he laughed himself into a coughing fit so intense he had needed to take a moment to breathe. I may or may not have blushed at this. _Let's keep these days an S-ranked secret, okay? Yeah. No one can see me._

Speaking of Kakashi and Rin-chan, their cohabitation proved a regular source of humor. The sheer size of Kakashi's library of "cheap fiction", as Auntie labeled it, was staggering, as was his tendency of living from hand to mouth while he drew a perfectly respectable salary. It did them both some good for her to whip him back into shape… but it also made for some of the best comedy around.

Just a week before, we had all been witnesses to Rin-chan shaming Kakashi into eating "proper food", to the tune of his pained protests. Whiny, eminently audible ones. _Someone film this,_ _ **please**_. _This world needs the Internet!_ In a world with shareable videos, he would **never** live this down. Not that I intended to, anyways. Just mouthing "but carrots are eviiiiiil" near him was enough to get a glare.

Yomogi-san also announced her engagement around this time–she was to marry one Hyūga Hiashi, a man almost ten years older than her, on New Year's day. It caught me unprepared in its suddenness, but Auntie assured me this was how her clan did things. Marriages among the Main House always happened on New Year's day, at first sunrise.

The announcement, and the omiai preceding it, had been mostly perfunctory; Hyūga-sama was nearly past the age he should produce heirs, and more: his younger brother had had a son, so the question of succession became urgent. In its own twisted way, it made sense; both were nearing the age they were expected to settle down and marry, and so it was expedient to join them.

And thus, amongst Konoha's noblest and finest, there had been no doubt who Yomogi-san, as the clan's most eligible bachelorette, would marry. Yomogi-san was one of the best medics Konoha had, especially in the research field. Her accomplishments, however, didn't insulate her from such backwards practices; instead, they made her a better match for the clan heir in the eyes of the clan elders.

Uncle and Auntie had been invited, as had Otou-sama, Okaa-sama, and surprisingly me as well. Overall, the ceremony was nothing like what I knew from my time as Helen. Mostly, it involved the exchange of vows of duty and fealty, without much ceremony at all. The present clan heads affirmed themselves as witnesses, and then it was done.

Celebration followed, with a small banquet for the distinguished guests and a taijutsu dance demonstration, entertainment and a show of strength for the clan all packaged in one. Otou-sama remarked it was considered very rude to watch one of those with the Sharingan activated. It made little sense; while for most clans, that would be akin to giving any watching Uchiha in the audience a lot of their repertoire, there was no way for us to mimic the Jūken.

Later, I would recall precious few moments of what followed: Yomogi-san's retreating back as the married couple left, presumably to consummate their marriage; the taste of one particularly oversweetened pastry; Auntie's surprisingly well behaved performance during the whole affair. Most of all, the event was a memory of crying bitter tears for a future unmade by tradition.

* * *

With Yomogi-san gone, I was left without much of a way to keep investigating my condition. She had left me her notes, detailed and complete in her neat handwriting. Unfortunately, I didn't know nearly enough about medical ninjutsu to understand them… even asking Rin-chan didn't help much; the gap was that wide. For now, this was off the table. Which left me some extra time.

Most of it, I invested on training with Anko-san. She was a violent and weird kid, but that energy of hers was hard to deny. I wasn't sure how much Uncle would approve of me hanging out with Orochimaru's apprentice, but Anko-san **knew** things. Chakra control exercises I hadn't been aware of, and tips for aiming kunai without a Sharingan (which most Uchiha training assumed).

But she also taught me other things. Useful things: how to track people in crowds, how to tell a venomous snake from a harmless one, how to pick simple locks… Anko-san was a good teacher, once one learned how to interpret her. _And so long as one keeps bribing her with dango,_ I added, seeing her devour another one. _At this rate, soon I will be able to open my own dango shop._

* * *

 **A/N:** We've reached 100 followers! Wooo! Shoutout to DWM, the hundredth follower. You're all special, but they get a nice round number.

Kayo-san asked, in a review, about ships. I prefer to leave those mostly to the future–after all, the tension of that special moment when you are finally certain those two (or more? who knows) are getting together is delicious. I will, however state that Hinote's dream in chapter 12 was mostly misremembered fanart of Sasuke. Do not despair, though, snake sannin fans! This is a very active period for Ninja Voldemort, and we'll probably get to see much more of him in the next few chapters.

About this chapter: I had some trouble with it; I felt pulled in too many directions (hope it isn't that noticeable). I'm slowly losing that one-chapter buffer D= I will try to keep up with the schedule, but be warned that chapter 14 may be a week late.

I have been... notified that my pace is glacial and I'm moving at the speed of tar. It's partly by choice; I feel I have a lot to tell about this period of Naruto lore. There will probably be some acceleration once Hinote gets to the academy, but for now I guess we're stuck to the Snail Express.

Now for my little question: what do you feel should be the optimal number on shinobi in Orochimaru's problem? I have a number and reason in mind, but who knows. I may shamelessly steal your idea (with credit, of course) if you have a convincing argument!


	15. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: Naruto is like an island. In that I don't own any islands.**

 **Chapter 14**

Minato was nervous. He stared at the door behind which his future wife was getting ready for the umpteenth time. He'd been in a war, and faced death multiple times in the battlefield. His achievements were legend, and his name feared throughout the world. Yet this door somehow made him feel woefully unprepared for what was to come.

The ceremony would be simpler than Hyūga-sama's, as neither he nor Kushina had a large clan backing them up, yet it loomed huge on the horizon; mere minutes away, in a day when each second felt like an hour. He was looking forward to it, of course. He'd dreamt of marrying Kushina since he was an awkward boy in the academy. And they'd already lived together, (to the scandal of some of their elders), already shared a room, a life, for years. _Heck, we have an (adopted) kid!_

Still, he felt as jittery as when he'd first confessed to her. Minato wanted it to be over already. He found himself considering plans to rush the room, take the bride, and run away with her. Somewhere far, far away from that terrible clock, which never moved and at the same time ticked too fast.

Interestingly enough, he wasn't nearly as nervous for the Hokage ceremony. That one, he knew what to expect from. _I know what to expect from marriage, too! ...right?_ Kushina's eyes (and Hinote's? _How precocious is she?_ _Women are scary_ ) made him doubt he did, sometimes.

Either way, he was coming out of this Uzumaki Minato (her clan was the most prestigious one, even after the fall of Uzushio). The thought sent tingles down his neck. They'd go add him to her clan registry, update the plaque in front of their home... He wondered if that meant every other village would have to update their Bingo Book.

* * *

Uncle and Auntie's marriage was very low key, but sweet enough to make you cry. Uncle was the one going red this time, funnily enough. _He look_ _s_ _like some sort of mixed red-and-yellow bell pepper_.

Auntie had been dressed in a beautiful white and violet kimono, covered with flower designs and bearing the Uzumaki swirl over the chest. A wine-colored obi tied it around her waist, and all around her person were more flowers: a forget-me-not blossom (from Okaa-sama) in her hair, a sunflower (from Yomogi-san) in her obi, and a cactus flower (from me) left in the preparation room. _Drat._

Uncle looked very dapper in his own black kimono, with the Uzumaki symbol sewed on it to symbolize his adoption into the clan. In fact, he looked to me like he'd fit well in a samurai movie if he got himself a sword. And maybe got roughed up a bit–that kimono looked way too fancy for a samurai, even if the shape was overall right.

As for me, Okaa-san had given me a black kimono with an uchiwa in the back, just for the occasion. I had a red obi tied around it, and my hair was in a tight bun. _I wish I could look this fancy more often._ In any case, I was glad I was still allowed to wear clan livery. I was an expat, after all.

The ceremony was overseen by a civilian officer, who asked them to exchange some vows, both pertaining to the marriage itself and to Uncle's adoption into the Uzumaki clan. When said vows were exchanged, Uncle began to cry. _So. Damn. Cute!_ I could take a bite out of him right then

I was invited by Rin-chan to spend the night–surely, to let the lovebirds have some "alone time". I didn't advertise my knowledge of that, however. Uncle was already looking at me weirdly these days, and I didn't want to tip him off. Much as I trusted Uncle and Auntie, and enjoyed flustering them, I didn't want to drop this bomb on their lap. _Or in the ANBU's, for that matter._

Kakashi was strangely silent– **more silent** –that night. _His way of dealing with being emotional, I guess._ My occasional babysitter was a person of many hangups. Rin-chan was having none of it, though, and gushed at us both about the ceremony, and the meaning of each small moment, while I helped her make dinner.

Helping her made me feel accomplished; Kakashi was a genius shinobi, a genin by about my current age, but he couldn't cook to save his life. He claimed seasonings hurt his nose… _but that's suuuuuch an excuse. I know all about those, buddy. "I'll learn as soon as I finish my thesis!" Yeah, right._ It was a tiny, worthless victory, but still a good feeling.

After dinner, Rin-chan showed me a new shell she'd acquired recently. She couldn't go to the sea shore these days, but she still had friends bring her new specimens every now and then. This one looked like a cone, with alternating bands of brown and white. She told me it was the shell of a coral snail, generally found near the coast of the Land of Rice Fields.

Her collection was pretty large, and largely pretty. She said she'd been collecting since she was around my age, before she even entered the Academy. _I wonder what I'll be showing kids when I'm older? Maybe failed sealing scrolls. Not like I can show my art to kids…_

When I got back the next morning, both Auntie and Uncle had their best shit-eating grins on. That got me grinning too. _Good for you guys._

* * *

It was soon after the marriage that I got another piece of news: Okaa-sama was pregnant again! _I'm getting another sibling, oh my!_ I'd probably need to keep some distance from the baby, due to chakra concerns, but I could still adore them and shower them with love and sweets.

A part of me was concerned that, if the baby was a male, I'd slip even further in the family priorities–who needs their eldest daughter, a cripple nonetheless, when they have a second son? Not most major clans. _Don't go down that path_ , I told myself. _That way lay madness_.

Do I get to pat myself in the back for a cliché Shakespeare reference?

It was decided that my new sibling would be named Sasuke, after Sandaime's father, if he was a boy; if she was a girl, she'd be named Mito, after the Shodaime's wife. _Those are some powerful names getting floated for you, kiddo. Don't let it get to your head, or big sis will have to deflate your ego for you!_

Pride ran in the family, and it made for a terrible thing for a clan to have in spades. _Pride goeth before_ _destruction, and haughtiness before a_ _fall_ , I could still hear the priests say, an in this point they were right. At least Itachi-nii seemed to have his head on straight.

Speaking of him, Itachi-nii was even more excited than me. He seemed very concerned with the idea of taking care of the younger child. Cute as always, but somewhat worrisome. _A child isn't a pet, okay onii-san? You won't go all controlling onii-sama on the newcomer, right? Just because I tease you a lot doesn't mean it's okay to do it to others._

* * *

Then came Uncle's ceremony, which happened to match with his birthday. It was a beautiful occasion, with all the pomp and circumstance of a major political event. Everyone was in formal attire, including me. For the second time in a month, I wore my B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L black kimono with the uchiwa in the back. _Score one for team fashion!_

There was a platform in the front, with all the VIP's: the Fire Daimyō, Sarutobi-sensei, and Uncle, all accompanied by their wives, plus the Konoha Council and an ANBU attachment of boyguards. _Geez, our command structure sure is a sausage fest_. The Daimyō officially nominated Uncle there, with the whole Jōnin Corp (well, those who were in the village) as witnesses and backers.

They reaffirmed the pact between the Fire Country and Konohagakure, read from a long, century old document. The preamble was… well, **goofy**. As if written by some stateswoman version of Pollyanna goofy. And then, almost in tsukkomi to the preamble, the actual clauses started and it descended into precious minutiae, probably negotiated carefully, inch by inch.

 _What the actual hell._

Then Uncle gave a speech. It wasn't very long, but I knew Uncle had labored hard over every line. Some of his points I found particularly powerful:

"We've fought three world wars since the founding, each more intense and terrible than we ever thought possible. Yet we've come out of them stronger, more united, more united by the Will of Fire. We've fought for this peace. For the space in which our children, our grandchildren will grow and live. We've fought for this peace and we will keep it. Let this be my promise to you: there will be no Fourth World War."

"Seventy years ago, the Shodaime Hokage laid out a dream for our village. A dream symbolized in the Will of Fire which he passed down to us. And we've worked at it ever since, shed blood, sweat and tears for it. The Konoha of today is not perfect, but we're on the right track. We're strong, we're united. Today, we are closer to the Shodaime's dream than ever before. And we'll keep working at it."

"We've seen, in other villages, that they turn against their own. We've seen the purges in Kirigakure. We've seen the way they treat their jinchūriki. We've seen them devolve into petty squabbles, warring amongst themselves for small gains, squabbling the life of their shinobi. But that is not the way of Konoha. That is not the Will of Fire. Together, we will prevail!"

All in all, a beautiful moment… even though the loud cheering scared me a bit. There's something inherently terrifying about thousands of people, most of them effectively armed to the teeth, chanting in response to a leader's speech.

* * *

Another two months later, we found out Auntie was pregnant. _I get_ _ **another**_ _little sibling?_ Mixed feelings abounded. Uncle couldn't really take time off his job for child care–"Hokage" was a 24/7 job–so that meant everyone would have to chip in. Including Kakashi, who kept mumbling something about "brats multiplying". _You know you love us, you cute grump._

I wasn't really included in the tally, however; no one really expected the future five year old to babysit. _If only they knew..._ They'd probably still not trust me with a baby; I'd never been the best caretaker for small creatures. Or big creatures. _Do they have pet rocks in this world?_

 _No matter._ I still had a lot of things to do. I had been falling behind on transcribing all the mathematics I could remember, and on applying it to fūinjutsu theory. The latter was no small undertaking; for now, I was mostly formalizing the theoretical arrangements, but already I had hit some problems, mainly on measuring chakra. It might be easier if I was a sensor or a Hyūga–or, for that matter, had access to my own dōjutsu–but even one of those would not get numerical values.

The same formalization problem applied to Orochimaru's problem. _He asked for a flame "equivalent to the Gōkakyū", but what does that even mean_? The same jutsu had different properties depending on who was performing it, their familiarity with the technique, their proficiency at chakra control, their affinity, and a myriad other factors. So **whose** Gōkakyū?

All these issues weighed heavily on my mind, day after day. Uncle's birthday came and went (I helped make the cake!), and my own approached stealthily. I got the news that Yomogi-san was also expecting a child, which I couldn't let go of without commentary:

 _First, **damn** do the Hyūga work fast._

 _Second, what is with all the babies at the same time? And each expected about 11 weeks after the previous one._

 _Third, w_ _ho's next? ...Note to self: watch Rin-chan and Kakashi_ _ **very**_ _carefully._

* * *

Mother's stomach had grown huge with the baby by the time Itachi and Hino-nee's birthday came around. Kushina-san, who was not that far along yet, seemed at the same time curious and terrified. Mother laughed. "Don't you remember?", she asked. "This is nothing compared to when I was carrying these two around". Itachi wondered at the fact that both him and Hino-nee had fit in there at all.

Sasuke was born a month later, on a rainy day. They were chatting in the living room when her water broke, and Father went out into the streets. He returned two minutes later, accompanied by three drenched women. Iryō-nin, there to perform the function of midwives. Itachi neither wanted nor was allowed to be there for the birth, but Fugaku spent the whole duration in the room.

This meant he was left to wonder just how the iryō-nin in the village were deployed. There certainly needed to be some manning the military hospital at all times–Hino-nee's description of the place confirmed as much–and some accompanying mission squads; but was this a scheduling or a position difference? In other words, were there two types of iryō-nin (field and base), or did all of the personnel alternate between roles?

Afterwards, Itachi was called in to see his little brother. He was a tiny thing, nearly bald and covered in blood. The room smelled like poop and sweat, and Sasuke was screaming his lungs out. And yet Itachi felt enchanted by the miracle of life he was witnessing: the coming of a whole new living, breathing being; one of his own blood, no less.

Hino-nee visited to see Sasuke some days later (and make a lot of weird, cooing noises), though Mother and Father were adamant she not touch the baby. In fact, when they thought he wasn't listening, they (especially Fugaku) expressed concerns over her continued contact with Itachi. "No matter how we might feel personally, we can't have the clan's heir put in constant danger!", Father would say.

Itachi wasn't having any of it, though. Hino-nee was his sister, and an Uchiha. Surely his duties as Clan Head would include looking out for her as well? He'd tried to indirectly broach the topic during dinner a couple of weeks earlier, but his inquiries were met with avoidance and a quick change of subject. Something to consider.

It made Itachi wonder if she'd ever move back in with them. He thought back to their birthday, and the sweets she'd given him. He'd been torn between eating them and keeping one as a keepsake, but in the end his sweet tooth won out.

He still had the drawing she'd given him, nearly two years prior, just before she was taken from the house. Itachi kept it safe inside an envelope, under one of the floorboards in his room, and would often take it out at night, when the corner of the room that used to belong to her felt particularly empty. Maybe the new baby would help him feel less lonely.

Itachi smiled.

* * *

And thus it was that I became five years old. Next year, me and Itachi-nii would be in the Academy. Getting to spend time with my onii-chan would be great, though I couldn't say I was looking forward to having to wear chakra sealed clothing everywhere again.

It would be something of a bother to replace sealed clothing every year as I grew, but Auntie had shown me how to sew the seals on myself, even though I didn't understand the principles behind them. Fortunately, these seals weren't the type one needed to activate with chakra; in fact, they were made precisely so that no chakra could traverse them.

Making them wasn't the issue, though; the problem was that, though Auntie and Uncle had made me forget about it until now, I was still a risk to everyone around me, and concerned parents had already notified the academy they wished me to wear my hazmat at all times. They couldn't ask me not to attend–exiled or not, I was still born an Uchiha, lived with the current Hokage, and was in the good graces of his predecessor.

I wasn't worried about the curriculum, at least. Even if I weren't an adult, and familiar with more mathematics than was probably required of any shinobi, Otou-sama's training plus Sarutobi-sensei's lessons would have meant I was miles ahead of the other kids in everything but ninjutsu… which I couldn't do. At all.

When I expressed my worries to Uncle, he made a scrunched up face, but assured me it was possible to graduate without any ninjutsu. In fact, he confided, Guy-san was pretty terrible at everything but taijutsu, yet he was one of the village's top shinobi.

 _I can do this. Uncle, Auntie, Otou-sama, Okaa-sama, Sarutobi-sensei, Guy-san! Come hell or high water, I'll break through everything in my path. I'll graduate, and make all of you proud! So witness me!_

* * *

 _Damn Murphy's Law._

* * *

The Tenth of October.

Uncle had told me Auntie's childbirth would be complicated by her "condition", ie, being the jinchūriki (highly classified information, I gathered; how on this sweet Earth I was allowed to know, I had no idea). This meant they moved her to a secure location in preparation for the process, and I was assigned to Kakashi and Rin-chan while Uncle and Auntie were out.

I was having a fun couple of days. Kakashi was a very laid-back caretaker, and Rin-chan treated me more like a granddaughter than anything. Kakashi was miffed, of course. Particularly because Rin-chan had decided my presence meant his erotica had to be stored away. "How come **she** gets to read **her** books and I don't!?" echoed quite frequently around the house. _Oh, the salt is delicious._

Currently, he was trying to sneak one of his ero books out from storage under a thick dictionary. _To tattle, or not to tattle?_ On one hand, the books being out meant I could sneak a peek. On the other, flustering Kakashi was **always** worth it.

And then all hell broke loose. Or, well, a demon did.

* * *

 **A/N:** Aaaaaaaand we're back! An extra large chapter to compensate for the wait. Sorta.

A bunch of time skips, some background information on what I envision Konoha society to be like, and the shit hits the fan. Hopefully you won't get hung on this cliff for more than a week, though.

Reviews are welcome! 

Small update: Kushina's kimono was inspired by aoitorix's drawing on Deviantart / Kushina-a-bright-day-345465953


	16. Chapter 15

**EDIT:** i hear some (all?) people didn't get a notification when I posted chapter 14 last week. It's the longest one yet, if you don't consider my notes, so treat yourself!

 **Disclaimer: You know, this owning Naruto thing... I'm not into that scene. I'll keep to Hinote, thanks.**

 **Chapter 15**

Rin-chan was the first to notice it. She flinched, then doubled over, pressing her hands to her chest. Kakashi was immediately at her side, looking very worried. A few moments later, however, we all felt it–that sickeningly violent energy, flooding through everything with such an intensity I could feel it against my skin. _I know this chakra._ It was the same as when Auntie channeled her chakra into me, but a thousand times more intense. _What is happening?_

"Get to Minato-taichō's house and grab some sealing supplies. We have to stabilize her seal."

Kakashi's voice startled me from my evil chakra-induced reverie. He'd picked Rin-chan up, and was directing me towards the door. _Right. Sealing supplies._ Kakashi could no doubt get them himself, but he needed to mind Rin-chan, and I knew best where they were located. There was also the fact that I had more sealing experience in sealing... _And I'm rambling again. Focus._

I ran to the house, followed closely by Kakashi. When we got there, I heard a child screaming. It came from the fortified basement where Uncle tested his jutsu. Kakashi motioned to indicate he would take Rin-chan there. She screamed. _No time to think about it._ I rushed to Uncle and Auntie's bedroom, where she kept her fūinjutsu materials. A loud roar could be heard across the village, and the air seemed to tremble with chakra

When I got to the basement, I saw the source of the screams: a baby. A little blond thing, he was, crudely swaddled in cloth. He was still red from the birth, covered in mystery goop. _What on earth?_ A blond newborn, in that place, could only be Auntie and Uncle's son… _but why is he here?_ _No. Focus. Need to stabilize Rin-chan's seal._

I froze. _Wait, her seal?_ _What in the…?_ Kakashi's pleading look snapped me out of it. Based on her behavior, the seal should be on her chest. _Okay, so she has some sort of seal… on her chest?_ I grabbed a pair of scissors and cut open her blouse – she wouldn't relax her arms for long enough for me to remove it normally. Kakashi blushed a bit, but I ignored it. _Not the time._

 _There it is._ Atop her heart lay a complex, eight-pointed seal, the tattoo writhing on her skin, bulging rhythmically. _I haven't ever seen a seal do that! What is happening!?_ I didn't know nearly enough about sealing to fix a seal like this, and I doubted anyone in the village but Auntie could. _I haven't seen a seal this complex since…_ It all clicked. And that made the task even more urgent.

 _Auntie's seal is leaking, and this one is responding to the chakra of its… sibling? Cousin?_ Isolating her from the chakra was the best I could come up with. _It will have to do, until Auntie can come and fix this. I hope she's okay._ A leak like that couldn't be good. _Where the hell did Rin-chan get a fucking bij_ _ū_ _sealed into her, and why?_ I shook my head.

"We need to isolate her from this chakra. I think that's what's causing it", I told Kakashi. Almost before I finished, he'd grabbed a brush and drawn a seal around her contorting tattoo. I looked at him, and noticed he had his Sharingan open. _He can copy f_ _ū_ _injutsu? I thought even the Sharingan wouldn't allow the wielder to follow all of the intricacies of a seal._

And then the chakra storm got worse. The howls became deafening, and the sound of an explosion could be heard. Terrified screams and howls of pain followed. A terrible wave of dread passed over us, what I would later identify as a terrifying amount of killing intent. I felt sweat drip from my pores. My heart accelerated like crazy, and I felt like I was suffocating. More than that, my head hurt horribly. Kakashi looked to the stairs, and almost got up. Then he turned back to Rin-chan and stayed where he was, pouring chakra into her seal.

And then Uncle was there, with Auntie limp in his arms. _Auntie! No!_

He laid her on the floor, barely giving us a look, and put the blond baby next to her.

"It's fine. You're with Naruto now", he told her.

Then he was gone.

Auntie looked terrible. She was pale, and had blood dripping from the corners of her mouth. I looked at her, and it my throat hitched. The floor was falling away from me, and the air transmuted into unbreathable molasses. My eyes burned, my head hurt, and my heart was in pieces.

"Shhhhh, Hinohino. Come here, let me see you." Her voice was terribly small. "Be strong, okay? You must be a good big sister for Naruto, dattebane!" She managed a smile. I sobbed.

She looked at Kakashi, who kept glancing at the stairs.

"We'll be okay. You can go." Kakashi got up and ran to the stairs. "Now, Hinohino, you need to listen carefully, okay? Do you remember the four-fold barrier seal I showed you once? The one with the elemental- elemental formation?" Her voice faltered, and so did my breathing.

"Do you remember it, Hinote?" She repeated, and I nodded, dredging the memory up. My head pounded, a flickering pain at the edge of my awareness. _Focus. Auntie needs me!_

"I need you to draw that around her seal."

I got up and grabbed the brush Kakashi had left, trying not to pay attention to Auntie's labored breathing, or how ragged she looked, or how much worse my headache had gotten. _Focus._ I drew the symbols, one by one, even as my sight began to distort. I'd had headaches before, but never one this bad. _**Focus.**_ Auntie talked to me the whole time. I couldn't tell the words, but it was calming, and distracted me from the pain.

At last I was done, and my world was consumed by terrible burning. At some point, Uncle had come and picked Auntie and the baby up, leaving me alone with Rin-chan and my completed seal. She had told Kakashi she'd be okay, but I knew that look. I'd seen it too many times in the mirror. That face which told me Auntie was _withering dying dwindling expiring perishing ending vanishing my hea_ _d hurts so much make it stop_

I clawed at my eyes, trying to reach the pain that came from my heart, but to no avail. I screamed and contorted, the image of Auntie **burned** into my retinas with a fire that refused to be extinguished. _Like Auntie. Auntie is ebbing fading passing and I can't help and it hurts so much HELP_

I passed out.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen took stock of the damage. The Yondaime Hokage was dead, as was the Kyūbi's jinchūriki and foremost fūinjutsu expert in Konoha. All around the village, hundreds more had died, and twice that number had lost their homes. Luckily, most of the infrastructure was unharmed, and what had been damaged had been repaired within hours.

 **Luckily.** As if anything having to do with this incident could be considered lucky. They had just come out of a world war; for one of the heroes of the war, and their kage, die so soon, did not bode well. Especially when the same incident had incapacitated quite a few of their elite forces.

He wished Tsunade were still in the village. His student was a gifted healer, and her presence during these times would have lent a relief to many. He shook his head. Wishing for the Slug Princess would not bring her back; he suspected nothing would. Hiruzen would just have to do with what he had. For now, that meant stabilizing their power, and choosing the village's course in the future.

The Council had decided to relocate the Uchiha. Many recalled the history of Uchiha Madara's attack with the Kyūbi; one or two, even, were children during the event itself. They had taken the attack to be, if not an actual offensive from the clan, a bad omen, and thus used the destruction of their compound as a reason to move them further from the village center.

Hiruzen was worried. Tensions among the clans were higher than any time since the founding, and growing fiercer every day. Moving the Uchiha was additional fuel to a fire he had already been unsure they could escape without nasty burns. Especially not with the village as it was. Still, Danzō had a point: isolating the Uchiha might yet shield them from accusations, and defuse the situation through mere spatial separation.

 _We lost so much that day._ He thought of Naruto, deprived of his parents and saddled with a terrible burden, **the** terrible burden, in the very first minutes of his life. He thought of all the families whose fathers, mothers, children, would never return home again. He thought of those who may still die, if this upheaval lured the other hidden villages into sparking war anew. And he thought of one girl, unresponsive in her room, blinded as her own chakra attempted again and again to activate a kekkei genkai she was never destined to have.

* * *

 **A/N:** I've only got one thing to say about this one: I had to reread a whole bunch of the manga until I felt I got this right - or, at least, close enough that I could post this. I hope you enjoyed it!

Okay, a couple more things: first, reviews are very very welcome, especially on this chapter, where I am unsure how clear the descriptions are. Hinote herself doesn't get what is going on, so it was hard to put it to paper. Well, screen. Second, since I forgot about it last week: Firebrand is one year old! Woo! I am saddened that something supposed to update once a week only has sixteen posts in more than twelve months, however.


	17. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Nor do I own any of the characters I borrowed from there. I did, however, create Shoku. Isn't she delightful? I think she's delightful.**

 **Short note: I have over double the visitors to chapter 15 that I do to chapter 14, which was published in the same month. Please make sure you didn't skip it! It's the one where Kushina wears a kimono and is still alive D=**

 **Chapter 16**

Two months had passed since the tragedy of October 10th. Things had been tense for a while, but the Sandaime had managed to keep it from devolving into a war. Much as the Tsuchikage was raring to go, the fact remained that Konoha had emerged from the last war decisively victorious, and sparking the flames of war without casus belli was liable to provoke the other Hidden Villages to take the opportunity to stab him in the back.

That, and Sarutobi Hiruzen had been in a downright scary mood at the moment. Jiraiya had seldom seen his old teacher emit so intense a killing intent as when he'd stared Oonoki's envoy down; in fact, the Toad Sage was pretty sure the man had had a "code brown" right then and there.

Jiraiya's own presence in the village was also a factor. All humility aside, he was a known powerhouse. He just wished he'd been here earlier, in time for the birth of his godson–not the least so he could have helped contain the kyūbi. He was Konoha's second- **first** most experienced fūinjutsu specialist, after all. Now, however, he was useless. He knew nothing about raising a kid.

He stared at Kakashi across the table. The white-haired shinobi had refused to take in his teacher's child, much for the same reason Jiraiya had. Duty, inexperience, and pain. Yet both felt positively shitty for it.

 _At least Kakashi can say he's already taking in one brat_ , said a part of him, very disappointed with himself. It sounded like Tsunade.

 _At the insistence of the Nohara kid,_ he insisted weakly. _Also, t_ _hat one is easy. All she does is sleep and stare at the wall with those_ _creepy_ _red eyes of hers_. It wasn't even the crimson red of the Sharingan. The kid's eyes had burn scarring all over them, and all around them. Jiraiya had seen some crazy things while on duty, but that injury of hers was something else.

 _You mean she's traumatized. And has a war wound at five. And don't tell me it's not. You know this was enemy action. One you weren't there to help with_.Okay, this was starting to sound positively accusing. _Damn right it is. Now haul your ass out there and help!_

He got up. There was still no way he could take in a kid–despite what he might feel, his function as spymaster required him to be mobile and untethered. What he could do was check on the girl. Get her an eyepatch, if nothing else. A double one.

Jiraiya found Hinote sitting on her bed, handling some papers. On close inspection, he found them to be lurid drawings of men and women. Some of them were… anatomically correct. Legendary shinobi or not, he nearly shouted in surprise. _No one told me about this! Did the kid find_ _Minato'_ _s stash or something?_ _._ _.._ _calm down. She can't see what's in them. Play it cool._

"I'm never going to draw again, am I?" The girl asked. Her voice was hoarse. It was a voice he knew, from two World Wars. The voice of someone who had lost so much their body had given up on crying. _**Her**_ _voice_.

"You draw?" He returned, sidestepping her own question.

She nodded. He sat next to her on the bed.

"Are those Minato's? Or Kushina's?" She flinched at the names, and he wanted to slap himself.

"No. These are mine. I drew them." _A five year old drew these? What did you_ _ **do**_ _to this kid, Minato?_ He wanted to flip a table, but this was the most the girl had talked in a while.

"Those… aren't what I'd expect a kid to draw. Are you sure those are yours?"

"Yes." She had a defiant expression on her face. "You got a problem with that?"

Jiraiya stayed silent. He'd long since learned this was the tone which preluded getting his face smashed **into** the pavement. It took a minute until she broke it.

"I was learning fūinjutsu, you know", she told him. "I couldn't use ninjutsu, not once, but I could do this. Now I can't read, I can't write, I can't draw. I can't fight, I can't even run outside by myself. I'm useless."

He slapped her lightly. She may have been a girl, and not his daughter, but she needed it, and there was no one else here to do it.

" **You're** useless? Girl, I've seen ninja lose use of both legs and keep fighting. Some people are born blind. Some of these people died out there so you could live. Don't spit on their sacrifice and say you're useless. The only useless shinobi is the one who lays down their blade when their comrades are in danger."

She seemed shocked. _No one's treated this girl seriously since then, eh?_ Jiraiya took the time to study the rest of her room. It was austere; the girl had probably not wanted to bring much from Minato and Kushina's house. There were two stuffed animals, a fox and a cat; three racks of scrolls; a small dresser; and two framed scrolls on the wall.

Jiraiya inspected them closer. One was a letter of recommendation, signed by his own teacher, declaring she had apprenticed under him and was to be dismissed from academic subjects at the Academy. _This is one precocious kid._ He'd heard about it from Hiruzen-sensei, but could hardly believe it. Still, the Sarutobi elder wasn't one to spend his praises lightly. _Damn Uchiha prodigies._

The second, more recent, commended her as a casualty of the October Tenth tragedy. It wasn't as high a commendation as those borne by the shinobi who fought and died, or were maimed, in the incident, but it was still a high honor. She had kept the Sanbi contained, after all, in the middle of the attack, while she went blind. _A five year old._

 _This is one fucked up world we live in._ And Minato had left his kid in it, for this world to raise and take care of. _For me to take care of. I am his godfather._ Yet he couldn't. His duty wouldn't permit it. _And I can't raise your kid, Minato. I can't. I told you I would be a terrible godfather, dammit!_

"Mister? Are you crying?" Came the voice, and Jiraiya found his legs enveloped in a small hug. _I was supposed to be the one comforting_ _ **you**_ _, dammit!_

"Hey girl", he said, wiping his tears. "If a pretty lady like you keeps- keeps hugging me like this, I might misunderstand, you know?"

"Sure." She winked, and Jiraiya found he didn't mind her eyes so much. They were the eyes of an exemplary shinobi.

"Tell you what, Hinote-chan. Let's make a promise between shinobi, you and me: I'll get you a teacher; someone who knows what you're going through, who can get you back on your feet. In return, when I come to Konoha again, you show me what a splendid ninja you've become. Deal?"

"Sure!" She finally smiled, and he saw she could be beautiful, some day.

"Well then, you better deliver. Otherwise, you'll never be a great ninja like me!"

"What great ninja? ...you haven't told me your name yet." Jiraiya fell on the floor. _Ugh!_

"I am Jiraiya, the great Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku! You better remember it!"

"Sure, sure."

* * *

Hyūga Shoku was cooking dinner when she heard the footsteps approaching. She reached for her tantō. No one approached her corner of the compound, especially not at this hour. Sure, sometimes one of the youngsters would knock at her door in one of their dares, but this was someone big. Someone who was advertising their presence–no shinobi walked so loudly, and no civilians came so deep into the compound.

A moment later, she relaxed. She knew this gait. Not a very welcome visitor, but also not a hostile. She exchanged the short sword for a large wooden spoon. _At least he's not trying to catch me during bath time_ , she thought irritably. _Three. Two. One..._

"Hey, Shoku-san! Long time no see!" Jiraiya burst into the room. She hit him with the spoon.

"Sixteen years. What do you want, old pervert?" She folded her arms.

"Old? You're old enough to be my…" She hit him again. "Ouch! I mean… What, no love for an old friend?"

"As I recall, back then I warned you that if I caught you, I would kill you."

"Ooh yeah… man, so many beautiful ladies in one sentō!" His voice turned dreamy. She hit him. This time, the wack was particularly sound.

"Ouch! Lay off of me, lady! Haven't you heard about forgiveness? I was merely sampling nature's, eh, more pleasant sights! What's wrong with that!?"

Satisfied that his head would swell, she put down her spoon.

"Well, old pervert, what made you come all this way? Surely you haven't come to share my… my food", she finished hastily. _Drat! I forgot!_

"Oh yeah, the team back then used to call you Shokuji-taichō, right? Oh man, this brings back memories!"

"...what do you need?" She suppressed a smile.

"Well… Shoku-san, what do you say about taking an apprentice?"

"No."

"Wait! Look, she was learning from Hiruzen-sensei–yeah, I know, I couldn't believe he got an apprentice again either–but she er… she lost her sight saving a comrade, two months ago. So, I thought maybe you could..."

"No."

"Please, Shoku-sama! I owe her parents a huge debt! I don't know anyone else who could help her more than you!" He kowtowed. _Impressive._ _I guess even little Jiraiya can learn new tricks._ _Still..._

"No."

"I didn't want to resort to this, but you made me."

She heard a new set of footsteps approach. _Oh no he didn't._

"Baa-san? I heard you wanted to see me?" Shoku's empty orbits widened in surprise. _He did._ "Oh my, you have a guest! Thank you for coming. It's so rare for grandmother to get visitors, I worry she'll be lonely."

"Oh, come in, Yomogi-chan. I was just talking to your **kindly** grandmother, and she told me she was going to mentor your **friend** Hinote, who, as you know, was recently injured in the tragedy. Such a dreadful thing..." And there she was, her adorable granddaughter, heavy with her baby yet still making time to visit her grandma.

"You are? Well, she is a rare talent, though her impairment would make it hard for her to make it as a kunoichi…

"She did save Rin-chan's life, you know?" _I could have strangled him back when he was in my squad. Missed opportunities._

"I hadn't heard. Guess I owe her a debt for that, don't I?"

"Don't worry about it – your grandmother is going to help her, after all. **Right, Shoku-chan**?"

Shoku looked between her former subordinate and her adorable granddaughter. She sighed internally.

"...of course." _You crafty old pervert_.

* * *

Two weeks later, she found out she'd agreed to train a five year old Uchiha.

 _Damn you, old pervert!_

* * *

 **Extra: Adoption Blues**

"We can't do this, Kakashi! He's Minato-sensei and Kushina's son! We can't leave him out there, without a mom and a dad, to be raised by strangers!" Rin was fuming, a rare sight. Kakashi was taken aback, but stood his ground.

"I know. I know. But could we take care of him? We're not precisely well-suited for it. We're teenagers, you're still recovering from the incident last year, and I-"

"We can. We'll find a way; we have to. We owe Sensei that much. A lot more. And I'm getting better! We **can** do this."

"You're the iryō-nin. Would you allow a patient in your state to exert themselves?" He lowered his tone. "Besides, we already have to take care of **her**. You know her clan won't take her back; no orphanage will, either. At least Naruto has options." _He looks so much like them._

"Options!? He's a newborn, Kakashi. He doesn't choose anything. We do, and what you're proposing is condemning him to grow up abandoned by those who should be there for him when he needs us most! You should know better than anyone what growing up without a mother and father-" She stopped midsentence. "Okay, that came out wrong. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say it like that."

"I know what you want to say. But Rin, this is what's best. We are shinobi. We need to take on what we can, and not let ourselves be blinded by despair. We're not abandoning him, but as it is I am unsure we can manage. Better to pace ourselves, instead of trying to do everything and fail catastrophically." _Cruel, using it like that._

"How do you manage to keep your cool? This is the kid Sensei left the world! I just think about that poor baby, who isn't at fault for anything, but has lost everything in a single night. Why are we so weak? Aren't we supposed to be war heroes?"

"We'll do something about it. We're **not** abandoning him, just pacing ourselves."

 _Excuses, weakling._

* * *

 **A/N:** First, to answer some of my reviewers:

Moonacre BunBun, that, plus the search for immortality, the old man Big Good teacher, sticking their souls in other people... there's a bunch of connections there. Weird, huh? It's almost like they're both based on some archetypical character traits. As for what Hinote sees to connect them, they're both pale, connected with snakes, and have no nose.  
Kayo-san, thank you very much!  
Lady Syndra, well, here it is... hope you enjoyed it!

Reviews are awesome! Please keep them coming.

Note: I am a sighted person. If anyone out there feels offended by my description of a blind person's life, or believes it is inaccurate to a point that can't be explained by "chakra did it", please let me know. I will do my best to write this as well as I can.


	18. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I also do not own Anko, which is a pity because she's sooooo cute. And bloodthirsty, but what did you expect?**

 **Chapter 17**

It was just after Christmas that Hinata-chan, Yomogi-san's daughter, was born. She was like a delayed Christmas present, the best I could have asked for. They even let me visit her! I didn't get touching privileges, for obvious reasons, but I got to hear her make gurgling noises at me. _Oh, you little cutie you…_

Five days later, on the New Year, I was visited by Hyūga Shoku-sensei, Hinata's great grandmother. It seems that she was the teacher Jiraiya (I refused to call him "sama". He was way too goofy for that) had promised me.

"Well, so you're a kid. Great. That's all I needed, another brat in my life." _Who asked, "what if Kakashi was a Hy_ _ū_ _ga obaa-san", and why did I get the answer?_ _Wait._ _I know this voice…_

"Weren't you cooing at Hinata-chan the other day?"

"This and that are different subjects."

There was an uncomfortable pause.

"Ehem. Am I right to assume you have basic combat, targeting and evasion training?" I nodded, proudly. _I learned from the best!_

She sighed.

"I had figured. Well, that makes this this harder." _What?_ "Here's one thing you must learn, kid: o one in this village will try to make things accessible for a handicapped shinobi. A lot of that training, especially the versions used by Hyūga and Uchiha, depends on superior dynamic vision. Something we both lack. So right now, rather than just teach you how to do it, I'll have to break you out of a bunch of ingrained habits."

I recalled the promise yesterday.

"Bring it on!"

"Most shinobi can use their eyes, so that style you've learned works for them, but you will need to sharpen your hearing, smelling, and your ability to sense air currents on your skin." _Every time, I get surprised at what people in this world can do with their bodies. Truly the setting of a Sh_ _ō_ _nen._ "For now, in the interest of breaking your bad habits, let's see you dodge some of this!"

For the rest of the day, she threw blunted kunai at me, while I tried desperately to dodge. I was supposed to attack back, but as of now I had my hands full just trying to reduce the number of bruises I would have tomorrow. As Shoku-sensei had said, I found myself tripping over myself as my instincts were completely out of whack. _At least one good thing came from my previous training, though. I can go all day!_

* * *

I was pretty tired after all that, but that did nothing to deter Anko from dragging me around the village. She had found a new dango shop, way out in the civilian quarter, and said she just couldn't go there without "her dango buddy".

From the sounds it made traveling down the street, it was a small, wooden cart, which wandered around the neighborhood. Anko had memorized its route, which did not surprise me at all. What did surprise me, in a touching way, was that this was the first time she actually bought any. She'd tailed the unsuspecting vendor for **days** , resisting the temptation, just so she could be sure to come with me whenever I broke out of my reverie. For Anko, that was surely a herculean effort.

The dango were delicious. _As expected of our resident dango maniac! I need to bring Itachi-nii here one of these days._ I hadn't seen him since the tragedy, which made me a bit sad. I knew he must have been kept from visiting by his duties as heir, but it still hurt. To make things worse, the clan had also yet to let me visit my newest brother. _Okaa-sama, Otou-sama, am I really such a shame that I can't be allowed to_ _drop by_ _?_

A dango stick poked my cheek.

"Stop with the glum face, shortie! It's disrespectful to the dango!"

We were eating atop some poor sod's roof–Anko said dangling one's feet over the edge was "part of the experience". How so, I had no idea, but who was I to question the expert? _At least in the civilian quarter we won't have as many shinobi complaining we're blocking the roofways._

There would be some, though. "Civilian Quarter" was actually something of a misnomer, as there was no region of the city devoid of shinobi; that would be strategically stupid. It was just the sector farther from the Great Clans' original compounds, ANBU Headquarters, and thus the heaviest shinobi traffic.

It was also where the Uchiha Compound had been relocated after the tragedy, in a very clear dick move from the administration. Why they'd choose to send the Uchiha away like this was a mystery to me, and it was sure to anger our elders–I could still hear Otou-sama extolling the accomplishments of our ancestors, pointing at where this or that famous Uchiha had lived-

"You're looking glum again!"

Anko pinched my cheeks, and I yelped in pain.

"Stob! Stob id hurds!"

"Then give me a smile! You're too short and too full of dango to be glum!"

It was, of course, impossible to smile with my cheeks in her cruel, cruel grip, so I settled for attempting to tickle her. That wasn't the best tactic; I almost fell off the roof, and Anko had to pull me back. Long story short, we ended sprawled on the rooftop, with me on top of her. And an angry homeowner shouting at us.

 _I haven't laughed so hard in months, though._

* * *

The next day, Shoku-sensei introduced another activity: active sensing. If a sensor type was a sensitive antenna, detecting signatures from far away, this was supposed to be a radar. Sensing one's own chakra was something every shinobi could do, so the idea was that, by expanding it outside of the body, one could determine the positions of things.

It came with a set of problems: first, it was not a stealthy skill; any sensor within at least two miles would immediately notice it. And if from what I'd learned in my studies on shinobi tactics, that was a major impairment for a lot of high-rank missions. We were shinobi, after all; the need for furtive movement came with the territory.

Second, it drained chakra during use, which is never optimal for prolonged battle. This wasn't as big a problem as the first one, given how little use my chakra did have, and the fact that I actually had quite a large pool of it, for my age. _It's like having a check for a zillion dollars, from the Bank of Nowhere-land. Hurraaaaay._

Third, it required channeling chakra outside, the exact opposite of what I've been training to do my whole life. This was even worse, in terms of habits, than my dodge practice problem. Sure, Okaa-sama's and Guy-san's training did leave me accustomed to rely on sight for my reflexes, but at least it was dodging practice. This, on the other hand, was very much like trying to throw myself **into** the thrown weapons' trajectory. It went against every instinct I had.

Sure, I could channel it outside through my hands–I had done as much during my sessions with Yomogi-san–but to maintain a steady stream throughout the whole body was something normal (that is, non-Hyūga. _Freaking cheaters!_ ) genin struggled with, and would likely remain outside my reach for years to come.

"More's the reason to start now, then. If you just wait, you'll be a grandmother before you notice." _Is that_ _ **humor**_ _I detect from my dear sensei? Why, I had not expected it!_ And so I meditated away, stimulated by a very demanding old lady.

* * *

"'Going by the widely available data', comma, 'we should expect that', comma 'at the saturation point of two wind type shinobi per fire type shinobi', comma, 'which we deduced above', comma, 'a maximum gain of 250% in power can be achieved', period. 'Given those values', comma, 'diminishing returns for increased participants indicates the best returns would be obtained from three fire element ninja', comma, 'which would produce an economy of 20 to 25 percent', period."

"You gonna finish this any time soon? I better get those dango, pipsqueak, or I'll use my cramped hands to squeeze that big brain of yours into a pulp!"

 _Amateur._ I merely continued to intone. "New paragraph. 'This is', comma, 'however', comma, ' a red herring', period. The opportunity cost of using nine shinobi...'

At long last, Anko finished writing down my detailed–though I still felt like throwing in **citation needed** on a bunch of it–response to Orochimaru's problem. I'd been bribing her with sweets to read me texts, and now to write down my answer. Studying without note-taking felt weird, but I was working on learning Japanese Braille. _As if this language wasn't hard enough already, now I have to learn to read what adds up to over a hundred symbols with my hands. At least it has something like a multiplicative structure._

Difficulties aside, soon I'd be able to read and write my own notes. I'd still need help with the library, though–as Shoku-sensei had told me on our very first lesson, no one had ever bothered to make Konoha's shinobi facilities handicapped accessible. _For a militaristic government, we sure don't take very good care of our veterans,_ I thought to myself. _Maybe because there aren't that many. 'Shinobi' isn't a career with very long life expectancy, especially if you're_ _disabled._

Retirees like Shoku-sensei were rare. She was quite an impressive individual. Much like Hiruzen-sensei, she had fought in three shinobi world wars, and come out alive. She was the sort of warrior whose Run On Sight warnings in Bingo Books came in bold. The sort of person whose prowess people back on Earth would have made memes over. She also made delicious daifuku mochi, though for some reason she always seemed to use kusa mochi in them. _Yomogi-san, were your parents gluttons like Anko's?_

* * *

"Ha!" I exclaimed, hearing Shoku-sensei reposition herself in response to a shuriken I'd thrown. Every day, I found I grew more able to dodge her projectiles, and to answer with my own. I had yet to reach my previous level, let alone hit her a single time, but this was progress, dammit.

The style of dodging I was now developing was a lot more economical in terms of movement. Even with my improved sensing abilities, moving quickly was always a risk while blind. Unless you were Shoku-sensei, of course. She could even use the shunshin. due to her mastery of active sensing, but I was still trying to figure out the basics of that technique. So I stuck to minimal movement.

"You'll get clipped by wide area ninjutsu if you keep this up, girl!" She said, when she noticed it, and started throwing broad gusts at me between kunai. _Ugh. How am I supposed to dodge_ _ **that**_ _, you old masochist!?_

Mean sensei aside, I was getting much better. I had even begun to train with Guy-san again, since I could now do most of the exercises in his routine again. I still had to skip running around the village, but we compensated for that using a round track in one of the less often used training grounds.

Those weren't quite open to the public, but as a jōnin, Guy-san could get access to one when none of the teams were using it. In fact, when he was out on a mission, I could even get Kakashi or Rin-chan to reserve a slot for me. Hell, I suspected Shoku-sensei could actually get one of the disputed training grounds, if she wanted. _I have contacts on really high places, don't I?_ I quashed the idea. Such thoughts were beneath me.

* * *

"I'm home!" I announced, loudly. I was required to, by house rules. Rin-chan told me it was so they wouldn't worry, but I knew the truth. I had no idea at which point during my mental absence they had started bumping uglies, and I didn't particularly care to know.

They were adolescents, after all, and Rin-chan had been clearly infatuated with Kakashi for years. Still, I worried they were both using each other as a fugue. _Eh. What do_ _ **I**_ _know of relationships. Let them do their thing. Teenagers will be teenagers._ _Hey, I'm glad for the chance to embarrass the both of you._ _But_ _what if I were a regular kid? Terrible housemates._

If I were to be fair, they weren't all bad. Or bad at all, really. They were nice people, put a roof over my head, food in my plate, and good night smooches on my cheeks (well, Rin-chan did). _They're also there for the bad nights_. The ones when I woke up choking and screaming and they'd both rush to help me. Somehow, laying down to sleep was worse than facing kunai.

And, truth be told, I enjoyed finding new ways to mortify them. Hinting at a smile in the morning, getting up to go to the bathroom at just the right moment… Kakashi was the most fun, since he wouldn't admit to blushing even when completely red. _I just wish they'd_ _keep it to themselves to a bit_ _._ _Make it a challenge every now and then!_

* * *

Speaking of teenagers, I had yet to catch Anko even making eyes at anyone. _You're thirteen!_ Shinobi or not, this was the age everyone was supposed to be experimenting, no? _Entertain me, goddammit! Wait…_

"Anko… do you like Orochimaru?"

She gagged.

"What!?" I could hear her heave. "No way, he's an old man! You thought… blergh!"

She'd even stopped dangling her feet. _Mwahahahaha._ _Weakness detected!_

"Hey, some girls like older men… and you always have that shine in your eyes when you speak of him…"

"That's because I admire him, you…" I could practically hear her grasping at those straws. "I mean I- he's an old man!"

"I'm not judging, Anko-chan! I guess spending all that time with him and those snakes, it just went from there?"

"I- get your mind out of the gutter! What kind of five year old are you?" _Oops._

"...the best kind?"

"Get over here, you!"

My head hurt for hours, from all the noogies she gave me… _So worth it._

* * *

I was bored. There was nothing to train at the moment. I was done with my katas for the day, had done Shoku-sensei's drills, studied Japanese braille… Normally this was when I'd go to the library, but for the first time in two lives, I had no use for books. _Could you please convert some of those scrolls already!?_ In any case, studying fūinjutsu was right out. I couldn't draw, couldn't really cook without help, couldn't read… _being blind sucks._

That left visiting someone… but I still wasn't allowed into the new compound. No one but clan members was, really, and they were now enforcing my expelled status much more stringently. Something about 'Police Security'. Which meant I couldn't go visit my siblings. Nor could I go visit little Naruto (who was soooooo the main character. _Fuck. Shoku-sensei was right, I'll be old by the time the story starts!_ ), as the matron had freaked out when I tried.

In terms of people I knew, that left Hiruzen-sensei, who was busy, Guy-san, who was out on a mission, and Kakashi and Rin-chan, who already got way too much of me. And Anko. _Now, am I seriously considering looking for that mad dango?_ She usually came to get me at her own leisure, but I had never gone looking for her. Especially on a Thursday afternoon. _At this time, she'll be with Ninja Voldemort… he did have a very interesting puzzle to offer. It wouldn't hurt to go see what they're up to._

"...and so, that's why I'm here", I finished my explanation to Orochimaru.

"Kukukukuku. I see." He sounded very amused. Dangerously so, even. "Well, since you're here, make yourself useful. Hold this." He handed me a jar of… pickled snakes?

And thus began my afternoons helping at Orochimaru's lab. _Yay, intern work._

It was actually very informative. I was assigned to help with whatever minor tasks he needed done (and which Anko refused). It was a lot like being an undergrad new to the lab. Shit rolled downhill, but you were so green even the shit jobs were learning experiences. Especially in the laboratory of a genius. Dr. Haard had been the best adviser I could have asked for, and I wouldn't have traded him for any Fields Medalist, but working with a genius was still exhilarating.

This man was ages ahead of his time; while most who investigated the world did so from the perspective of natural philosophy, or at most the limited way an ancient mason might look at geometry–looking for the best structure, but not wondering what about it made it work–Orochimaru had somehow arrived at something very akin to the scientific method.

He worked dizzyingly fast, coming up with new hypothesis and experiment designs out of thin air, as if nature itself had a live feed to his brain. Even stuck with the least desirable jobs, I could still watch him, and that was worth a lot. He even separated time to train me for my tasks, which is how I learned how to extract a snake's venom without getting poisoned myself (managed it on the third try!), the proper way to clean a blade prior to and after a dissection, and much else.

Some days, he expounded on what passed for chemistry in this world: he theorized matter was discrete, from his own experiments into the breathing of living beings, which mirrored Lavoisier's to an astounding degree. Other days, he'd speculate about this or that strange quirk of chakra dynamics, posit a principle by which it might be explained, and how one might go about testing.

"Kekkei genkai", he started, one day. "They don't seem to follow the same rules of inheritance as most other characteristics of living beings." He had done some experimentation on that, and arrived at Mendelian thinking. Quite impressive, even if he hadn't reached Darwinism. "They are quite difficult to study, however. The clans can be quite jealous of their corpses…"

I also learned from his strict laboratory standards. He had very specific procedures for the use of seals in his laboratory, so that no external influence might reach his more delicate experiments into the nature of chakra. Those, in particular, were very helpful to me. While I couldn't see the designs themselves, Orochimaru had explained their functioning to me, and I was pretty sure some of the principles could be used to improve my own chakra sealant clothing.

He was also an expert on the types and uses of chakra-sensitive paper. There were, of course, the basic ones available for testing young shinobi's elemental alignments, but this prodigious man had come up with a way to enhance and specialize them, allowing him to measure the intensity and elemental alignment of ambient chakra.

This whole situation was dazzling, and before long I found myself frequenting the lab not just to stave off boredom, but for fun. Orochimaru was creepy, of course, but Newton had been violent and paranoid, Cauchy a prick, and Erdös had been famously incapable of opening a box of juice. None of that made them any the lesser, so why should mere creepiness reduce my admiration for this man?

It was fun, while it lasted.

* * *

 **A/N:** This week, Firebrand has reached ten thousand views! Thank you all for the support, the reviews... warms my heart.

This chapter has had the most review versions yet (it had four; the previous record holder was 13, with three). It also ended up HUUUGE - it was larger without notes than any other chapter **with**.

In other news, we now have Hinote's answer to the shinobi efficiency debate: up to nine, but honestly, if you're committing that many shinobi to a task, all trained to work in perfect synchrony, you have better things to do with it than a Goukakyuu. I hope.

In other other news, I have a buffer again (yes, praise me!). Well, sort of. Chapter 18 is mostly ready. Whether that buffer will survive the week remains to be seen.

Please leave a review! It's the stuff dreams are made of.


	19. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: I own only Hinote. The rest of this mess is all Kishimoto's fault.**

 **Chapter 18**

"It'll be great!" Said Anko. "You'll see. This will revolutionize shinobi training!"

She'd been telling me about one of Orochimaru's secret projects: a bit of fūinjutsu which would allow anyone tattooed with it to access the natural chakra about them. According to Anko, he'd found the key to it in the serum of one of the many snakes to inhabit Konoha's surrounding forests. The whole affair was quite surprising, for a few reasons.

First, performing sealwork on human skin was an advanced technique. This was part of the reason jinchūriki seals had to be made by masters–a seal which would hold fine on paper or stone might just fizzle out on someone's skin. The human's chakra network was to blame; it acted as a subjacent chakra field, which, with time, would warp sealwork, even if weren't as… disruptive as mine.

Just strengthening the seal was a terrible idea, too–if a seal which went crosswise the chakra network didn't break, the seal would damage the chakra pathways, often irreversibly. And, as the Hyūga had learned to exploit, when the chakra network failed, so did the body.

Then there was natural chakra, a whole other conundrum. From what records I had been able to find, "easily hazardous" barely began to describe it. It was the sort of stuff Tailed Beasts were made of (according to a secondary source, citing the Shodaime–the man himself left nearly no written records), and while some theorized all living beings naturally absorbed minute quantities of natural chakra through normal activity, actually pulling it in, besides being hard to do, tended to drive one insane, crippled or dead.

And now Orochimaru claimed to have not only managed this feat, but that his seal could survive my special chakra. Truly, the next step in the training of shinobi. If Konoha had access to some reproducible way of granting ninjas access to natural chakra, forget our dōjutsu supremacy, we'd be the most powerful village in the world by far due to the raw power difference.

There was just one problem: I knew this pitch. It was what every drug company told you, when they were trying to get you on some new clinical trial. To be fair, in my previous life I hadn't had much to lose, and everything to gain, by entering some of those trials. It was literally a matter of life or death. Here, I had no need to subject myself to this.

Also, Anko had mentioned nothing about animal trials, which worried me. There was no EMA here, no MHRA, no FDA. All I had as evidence of the safety of this procedure was the word of Orochimaru… and genius or not, he was a fallible human, and the stakes were pretty high.

I tried, in vain, to convince Anko to pull out. When that didn't work, I considered going to the Hokage with my concerns. But I didn't. _He knows what he's doing_ , I told myself. _The Hokage probably already knows. He's Orochimaru's teacher, after all. No need_ _to act paranoid and_ _upset one of the most powerful shinobi in the world by tattling on his sanctioned experiments._

A choice I would forever regret.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen was at his desk when Hinote came into his was surprised to see her, at the very least. Well, as surprised as one could get when they had shinobi guards who announced anyone who came past the first floor. He was delighted she'd come, in any case. She used to visit him often in the past, to ask questions or show him her latest discovery, but he hadn't seen her since October Tenth.

He'd been wondering what to do with the girl. She'd been under Minato and Kushina's unofficial guard for the last two years, and now was in Kakashi's; that had been fine so far, but her clan-less status might present a problem later down the line. Purported equality or no, those without a shinobi clan behind them were seen as vulnerable, often even undeserving. He didn't want to see this added to the burdens she carried.

The Sandaime had a solution in mind. While the elders of his own clan would never stand for adopting her–they still remembered Uchiha Madara too keenly–the Uzumaki clan in Konoha had no such problems. The Council would surely protest, and see it an Uchiha power grab, and whine a whole lot, but they wouldn't be able to make an issue of it.

Hinote hadn't been an Uchiha for two years, so they could hardly raise an official complaint on those grounds. Kushina being the girl's guardian for two years was also a great factor in his favor, as was the fact that, as Naruto's guardian, Hiruzen was technically the temporary clan head.

But none of this explained why the girl was currently here, in his room. One look at her face was enough to know that she wasn't just dropping by to ask a question. Her face was warped with worry.

"Hiruzen-sensei. Do you know how Orochimarus-sama's natural energy experiment went? Anko told me she was going to participate, but it's been two days and I haven't seen her since!" _What experiment?_

He had had suspicions regarding his student for years. It was why he'd nominated Minato instead of Orochimaru to succeed him, though the latter was older and more experienced. His worries had only increased since then, and he'd had his ANBU monitor the Sannin 24/7 lately, looking for evidence of his wrongdoing. Despite everything. Hiruzen had dared to hope none existed.

But this experiment hadn't been reported. A few questions to Hinote confirmed this was worse than anything he had expected from Orochimaru. Dangerous, unreported tests on live human subjects didn't start to describe it.

The Hokage sighed. _Why, Orochimaru?_ He summoned his ANBU.

"We're moving forward with protocol Hydra." He turned to Hinote. "Follow me, Hinote. We need to get you somewhere safe."

* * *

Hyūga Shoku had been shocked to notice Hiruzen-sama was in his battle gear once again. He'd barely ever worn it since the end of the war; much like her, he was starting to get on in years. Despite that, she knew the Professor was still as mighty as ever. Again, much like herself. He'd brought her the pipsqueak, who sounded intent on fighting her way to freedom.

"Let me help her!" She screamed.

Shoku was having none of it. With quick movements, she touched on some pressure points, and put the child to sleep. _So woefully lacking in discipline. The Uchiha_ _have_ _always had insubordination problems,_ she mused. _This must be amended._

"What is happening, Sandaime-sama?"

"I'm off to teach a lesson to my student", he answered. His voice had an unmistakably bitter undertone. _The snake boy_ , she surmised. _That one was never going to amount to anything good_. "Hinote-chan", he continued, "was involved in this case,"– _of course she was_ _–_ "so I thought I'd bring her to you. I can trust you to keep my wayward disciple from her."

And come Orochimaru did. His breathing was just a bit labored, and he had the faintest smell of blood on him. He might fool others, but she knew he'd been to battle, and he'd killed.

"Would you be so kind as to allow me access to that girl over there, Shoku-san? She's a most valued companion, and I would like to see her. I was most distraught when she missed our meeting, two days ago."

She merely showed him her knife hand.

"You're not buying it, huh? Well, I have no interest to test myself against you, Shoku-san. That could end badly for both of us." He paused. "You sure I can't have the girl? I may be her best chance at a normal life, you know?" Much like a snake, he'd always been slippery, ready to change tack at a moment's notice. First trickery, then threats and appeal to sentiment.

"Can it, boy. I was a jōnin before you could walk. All you will get from me is an ass spanking. Turn yourself in now, and save me the hassle."

"As I said, I'd rather not."

He made to escape, but she was ready. Kunai flew at him with unerring precision, pressing him in the direction of the village, away from the house, while she advanced to cut off his escape.

Orochimaru was one of the strongest shinobi ever to serve the village, and Shoku was past her prime, but she was no pushover. He was also clearly wounded from his confrontation with Hiruzen-sama, and she didn't need to defeat him, just delay until the ANBU could catch up.

He wouldn't escape; within the range of her chakra sonar, she was arguably better than a regular Hyūga at tracking and discerning detail. She followed him as they traded attacks, yet he kept her at a distance, lobbing snakes at her whenever she got too close.

Soon, she could hear the sound of other shinobi approaching. So could he, going by his reaction. Noticing he was distracted for a moment, she activated the Shunshin, closing in on him at great speed. _Got you._ In response, he moved through seals quickly, drawing in air. A few moments later, just as she was about to hit Orochimaru, a great explosion of air hurled her away from him. She threw a shuriken at the Sannin, trying to get him before he escaped.

By the time the ANBU arrived, Orochimaru was gone.

* * *

The experiment was a massacre. By the time Hiruzen-sensei had invaded the lab, all the subjects except for Anko were dead. She was unresponsive and feverish, so they'd had her hospitalized. Not that the iryō-nin knew what to do with her–her condition was unknown, so the best they could do was keep her temperature down.

Anko had almost died– _might still die_ –at the hands of someone she respected– **admired** , even–because of my hesitation. When I thought of what might have happened to her, because I hadn't been able to help her, because I hadn't **wanted** to tell on Orochimaru, my eyesockets throbbed.

I'd tried to take my decoration and tear it. I felt wholly unworthy of it, now more than ever. _I've shared in the work of a monster._ Shoku-sensei had hit me when she found out. She'd scolded me, told me that this paper was proof of the value of Rin-chan's life, that tearing it would be to spit on her survival.

"If you want to atone, don't throw a tantrum. Make things **better**."

Could I really? I buried my face in my hands. Hands which had almost been covered in the blood of my friend. Hand which **were** covered in the blood of so many others. I recalled the image, long ago, of a street covered in pieces of cat. _I haven't come one inch from then._

When Anko woke up, I couldn't hold back my tears. I did hold back from hugging her, though. I had no right to touch her.

* * *

I was surprised when I heard Anko had called for me. I hadn't visited since she woke up. I couldn't handle being near her–it made me want to bury myself somewhere deep and dark. _I've been avoiding my sick friend. A friend to whose sickness I contributed._ ** _Coward._**

And so, there I was, in the hospital. Spreading my dangerous chakra around sick people to use active sensing felt like a Bad Idea (TM) (not that I could read the indications with it anyways), so I got an onee-san to guide me around.

I got the feeling she was staring at my facial scarring while we walked. Then again, so far as I could tell, most everyone did. I was told it was quite impressive and disgusting, so I wouldn't blame them. I got used to stares back when I started losing my hair, in another life.

She was on her hospital bed when I got there, breathing heavily. I'd been told by her attending iryō-nin that she got painful flare-ups from the seal, so they were keeping her under observation. It felt wrong. For someone as free as Anko, confinement must be as hazardous as the seal itself.

"Hinote." Her voice was strained, and I flinched. "You can burn seals, can't you?" She sounded pleading, as she moved the hospital robe to expose her shoulder. "Burn this."

There was so much wrong with this. My chakra could burn human seals, as proved by Rin-chan… but her case didn't speak very well of the risks.

"But-" I started answering.

"I don't care how much it hurts; it can't be more than this thing hurts when it flares. **Please.** "

Hearing her voice like that, I couldn't deny her. And so, I fled.

"I'll ask your doctors." **_Coward._**

* * *

I did get the go-ahead. Anko's condition had baffled all their experts, and no one in the village had the sealing expertise to figure out whether the seal could be unwoven, let alone attempt to do so. Botched human sealwork wasn't a common affliction, but it was nigh impossible to treat, so there was great interest in trying this. Add to this that the patient herself had requested it, and they were ready to do it.

They'd wanted to have a team of doctors with us, to observe and perhaps deal with aftereffects. It felt a bit crowded–they'd even brought the recovering Rin-chan and retired Yomogi here as experts–but I guessed that was to be expected of a possible "revolutionary treatment." _Glorified cauterization, is what it is_.

One of the younger iryō-nins, a short pink-haired (well, so I was told. There was a nonzero chance I was being screwed with) boy by the name of Haruno Tsutsuji (bit of a girly name, but none of my business), had been selected to aid me, channeling healing chakra while I infused mine into Anko. The hope was that we could restrict the damage to the seal, and harm Anko as little as possible.

Not that we had high hopes. We couldn't put Anko under–general anesthesia hadn't been invented yet, and what few sedatives and painkillers were known tended to play badly with her seal, _because of course they do_ –so she had been tied to the table, a cloth put into her mouth, so that she couldn't bite her tongue. _Just in case we this whole procedure didn't sound barbaric enough._

I placed my hands on her seal, hesitantly. It felt warmer than the rest of her skin. To my recently-developed short range chakra sense, if felt like it was moving. She squirmed a bit and moaned, and I knew it was flaring up, causing her pain. _Knowing_ _what_ _Orochimaru_ _i_ _s_ _capable of_ _, I don't doubt it's trying to defend itself._

Haruno-san's hands trembled, and I knew he was afraid of my chakra. _Geez. Anko is the one going through it and she's not moving._ A moment later, though, he steadied himself.

"Ready?" He asked.

I nodded.

I channeled my chakra in, and Anko screamed. So much for healing chakra. It did a great job of containing the damage my chakra did, but even localized cauterization hurts. It wasn't all my fault either. I could feel the seal writhing under my hands, like a living thing. And, like a living thing, it died when burned. I stopped the chakra, and Anko quieted down.

"Thank you", she whispered. Then she passed out.

* * *

After this, Anko recovered quickly. She got released two days later, and was soon back to her dango crazed self. She wasn't quite the same–her laughter came less often, and faded more quickly–but overall she seemed to have moved on.

I didn't understand. How could she laugh at all, with the weight of the death of dozens of people on her shoulders? I couldn't.

I felt dirty inside. I'd worked with Orochimaru, helped him do lab work. Were the samples I'd helped him dissect obtained from his captives? I tried to tell myself I had no way of knowing, that it wasn't my fault; surely, he wouldn't have risked discovery by involving him in his less savory projects, but the fact remained that I'd assisted, abetted his pursuits.

It took me another week before I managed to ask Anko. I felt horrible, like I was accusing her of not caring when she'd paid dearly for it. And she broke my every expectation.

"You think I don't feel it? It's precisely because I do that I move on. I need to do something with my life now, pipsqueak. Do some good, to compensate for all the bad I let happen. I can't erase all that suffering, but I can live to make up for it."

That hit me like a bucket of cold water. Anko hit something deep within me in a way Shoku-sensei hadn't been able to. I had been drifting around for a while now, aver since the October Tenth incident. It hurt, even more so now, but I couldn't afford to sit still. Not with this debt on my shoulders.

So I would do better. No more moping around and saying I was bored. I threw myself into training, getting back to where I'd been before the tragedy. If I let this get in my way, I could never look into Anko's eyes again. _Not that I can, anyways_ , I thought bitterly, before smashing down that bit of self-pity.

 _I need to become stronger. Harder, better, faster._

 _..._

 _Get out of my head, Daft Punk._

* * *

 **A/N:** Phew! This was a dark one.

I'd like to thank Kayo-san for spotting a typo I and my much appreciated friends cum quality checkers had missed. As for Hinote's humor, I must admit figuring out where to insert some wit is one of my favorite parts about writing this. With all the darkness in _Naruto_ ,I feel we all need some levity... see the end of this chapter for an example.

I'd also like to thank Ryohei-san for the dedication, and ask them to please not stalk poor Hinote. She has enough to deal with. Also having Hinote for a spirit animal must suck! She keeps getting beaten up by life, poor kid. Cherish her, please.

To answer JimmyHall24, what Hinote does isn't quite like Bakuton... at least, not the garden variety. Regular Bakuton is optional in use, and also requires training. Hinote just burns/blows things up by filling them with chakra, and so far hasn't been able to use it for for any nin- or genjutsu (though she has been able to strengthen her body with it like regular shinobi, otherwise she wouldn't be able to keep up with taijutsu and bukijutsu training). Quite the inconvenience.

Another bit of news: I have decided to start adding "theme songs to chapters". I'll be editing them soon to add those, so do go back in a couple of days if you're reading this in real time and check it out. Actually, if you feel like it, I'm open to suggestions, since I haven't chosen a song for every chapter yet. As for this chapter, the song is Har- psyche! It's Paramore's _Hard Times._

Reviews are welcome! Leave a bit of love, or a critique. Or just, like, your opinion. I'd love to hear from you all!


	20. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: I am not actually Naruto's creator writing in English under pseudonym for mysterious reasons. I am just a Naruto fan writing in English under pseudonym for mysterious reasons.**

 **Chapter 19**

I woke up and lay on my bed for a while, basking in my pillow's fluffiness, listening to the sounds of the morning. _Good. I should have an hour or two._ By now, I could tell the time by the frequency and type of bird call I heard. _Pretty impressive, if I say so myself_. I got up, stretched, and turned to the portrait on my dresser.

"Good morning, Auntie and Uncle! I'm going to school today!" _So excited._

Bathroom next. I liked getting an early bath in the morning, so I could "start the day with a BANG!", as Anko said. All that I needed now was coffee… coffee and nattō. The former was sadly unavailable, so green tea would have to suffice.

I got dressed in under five minutes. I'd taken to wearing neutral colors these days. Less chance I'd mistake one piece for another and end up looking like a carnival, for one, and it'd be easier to camouflage in practical exercises anyways. The latest addition to my ensemble was an eye mask, like many people used for sleeping. I'd tied a cloth over the scar for some time, but this was way more comfortable.

"Morning, Rin-chan!"

She was already in the kitchen. She'd always been an early riser, and I was sure she wanted to see me off today. I appreciated it. Memories of a previous life or not, first day at school was always scary. Plus, it was a school for soldiers, spies and assassins. No idea what to expect, but for the unexpected.

"Mmmm… damn birds, waking me up so early. Oh, hello, nano-nerd. You got school today or something, right?"

Even Kakashi was up. He tried to play it off as an accident, but I knew he'd woken up just for me. _I am on to your tricks, Tsundere-kun!_ I gave him a tackle hug.

"Good morning, old man!"

"Old man? I've told you, I'm fifteen! You hear that? Fifteen! I've got plenty of time 'till you can call me that!"

"Your hair and grumpiness say otherwise, old man."

He gently pushed me off him.

"Hmph." _Tsun tsun ~ ~_ _!_

A plate was set down in front of Kakashi, prompting him to stop whining and start eating. He'd been adamant about not showing his mouth, at first, but Rin-chan had beat- I mean, **coaxed** him out of it, at least when it was just us. Frankly, I had expected a scar, or a cleft lip, or **something**. What I found was… disappointing. He was just as much of a bishōnen without his mask as with. _Freaking riaj_ _ū_ , I thought jokingly.

Soon, I was done with my food, and thus ready to depart. I gave Kakashi one last hug, Rin-chan a kiss on the cheeks, and grabbed my stuff.

On the way, I was joined by a Dango.

"Hey, pipsqueak!"

 _The height nicknames are starting to get old really fast._

"You aren't even that tall, Anko." _And if genetics speaks true, neither will I be. But she doesn't need to know that._

"You're still a pipsqueak." She smiled. "So, you're starting school? Ha! That egghead Nakamura is in for one hell of a surprise! Show him up for me, will you?"

"I take it you weren't a teacher's pet?"

"As if! His classes were always booooooring, so I cut whenever possible. And he had the guts to try to hold me back a year! As if it's my fault that he couldn't keep the attention of a dog if he had a piece of meat!"

Anko was loud. It was kind of comforting, in a way. I could always count on her to be boisterous, hyper and unreserved. _And hungry for dango. She can put away a dozen of them in five seconds flat._

That was when I was joined by a Green Beast. _Another one? What am I, Momotar_ _ō_ _?_

"Hello, Disciple-chan! I have arrived to see you to your youthful first day at the Academy!"

 _Oh no. He's going to make me wear the green jumper, isn't he? Anko, HELP!_

"I see you aren't wearing your uniform, Disciple-chan. Did you forget it? Hang on, I'll lend you one!"

"Don't worry, Guy-sensei. I, erm, it's like weighted training! Yeah! I'm, er, trying to project my youth even without the uniform!"

 _Stop laughing, Anko. Now. Please?_

"I see! Great idea, Disciple-chan! As expected of my greatest disciple!"

 _I'm your only disciple._

"In any case, thank you for coming to see me off, Guy-sensei!"

"It's my pleasure, Disciple-chan! Enjoy your youthful time!"

Anko was still sniggering to my right. _Dammit, Anko._

* * *

I arrived early. Best not to have to look for a seat when I couldn't just glance around and tell which were empty. I sat near the front, so I could hear the lecture better. I couldn't follow the blackboard, and taking notes was still hard, so I'd best pay attention.

 _This is so exciting._ I knew I must be ahead of the class, but this was ninja school. Even the classes for kids must be very interesting. In any case, children in this world were different; stronger, limber, smarter. I doubted Itachi-nii was behind me in the curriculum at all. Even taking into account that he was probably above the curve, that still meant I could learn a lot from these lectures.

We started with target practice, at which I was sort of rubbish when the targets were silent and immobile. This was actually good training, though I assumed my fellow students were throwing form farther away. _I need to catch up to them soon._ _I'm not half as good as I was before the disaster_. Next was the theoretical class, which puzzled me. _Why have us exert ourselves right before a class?_

Unfortunately, Anko may have had the right of Nakamura-sensei's classes. The man put the "mono" in "monotone". _How can_ _ **ninja**_ _classes be_ _ **this**_ _dull_ _?_ The fact that, just a couple of minutes ago, we were throwing weapons didn't help. Something just didn't add up. _This has to be a_ _hidden_ _test!_ _They_ _must_ _want to evaluate our mental endurance and discipline._ _Well played, ninja academy._ _Yosh!_ The impulse to drift off abated, and I carefully hung on to sensei's every word. I had **every** intention to pass.

He asked a question every now and then, but those couldn't be it. I was surprised to hear Itachi-nii answer most of them. In great part because I'd honestly expected there to be more variety in answerers–Nakamura-sensei had asked one question of some jackass named Kamano, who somehow didn't know the answer (and, most bafflingly, was **proud** of it), then had stuck to Itachi-nii. In any case, I was glad, because I missed my brother and hearing his voice made the class more bearable.

Still, it was a struggle. The minutes passed by slowly, while the teacher expounded on very basic facts about weapon safety. All of this had been covered in the packet we had received for self-study a month prior to the school year. _How on the nose is this challenge? We've already practiced with weapons–this is clearly required material._ Even so, not all students seemed to be on to it; I could hear kids chatting in the background.

I was rewarded later, when sensei cleverly slipped a mistake into the lecture. I couldn't alert the other students to the test, of course; if we weren't supposed to figure it out ourselves, the teacher would have told us about it beforehand. _Discretion must be part of the test._ I thoroughly noted down the point at which this had happened, and the reasons why the team formation he'd described was inefficient, starting with the fact that it wasn't easily adapted if the team had to split.

At the end of theoretical class, I sauntered over to the teacher and handed in my work, hoping I'd get a good grade. Technically, I was entitled to skip all of this, but I valued the experience. _On to taijutsu practice!_

* * *

Itachi was glad to see Hino-nee at the Academy. He wasn't able to sit next to her today, both because the seats were taken and because Father had told him not to. Itachi didn't get why that was. There were a lot of things that didn't make sense to him these days. What was the purpose of life? If life was so precious, why did everyone need to fight and die? Why couldn't Hino-nee live with them?

Speaking of Hino-nee, she looked very bored to Itchi, but she still paid attention to the teacher the whole time. Not many others seemed to bother, but Itachi decided he'd follow her example. The importance of taking school seriously was something both Shisui and Father (and apparently Hino-nee as well) agreed on. Plus, even if he mostly knew the subjects, the review was welcome.

Hino-nee was taking notes at a furious speed. She didn't answer any of the questions, though Itachi was sure she must know the answers. She wrote pages upon pages; more than the actual content of the lecture, surely. Itachi felt the familiar flame of curiosity light up in his heart. _Hino-nee_ _i_ _s always interesting!_

When Hino-nee handed Nakamura-sensei her stack of notes, the man seemed very puzzled. He stared at her, then at the paper full of small indentations. Itachi knew it was Braille; he'd been learning how to read and write it in secret, ever since Shisui had told him Hino-nee could only read and write this way now. _Wait._ _Hino-nee and Shisui ha_ _ven_ _'t actually met each other yet, ha_ _ve_ _they?_ Itachi looked forward to introducing them.

He went up to the teacher and handed in his own notes. Nakamura-sensei wasn't very motivated, and a lot of students didn't seem to care much about what he was teaching; maybe Hino-nee had wanted to encourage him by showing she was paying attention? If so, Itachi intended to help her.

Next was sparring. Itachi vaguely remembered sparring with Hino-nee, years ago. He'd won most of the time, but it was still a challenge. He looked forward to showing her the many cool new techniques Father and Shisui had taught him, as well as seeing just how much she'd improved. _Maybe_ _I_ _c_ _an_ _teach her the G_ _ō_ _kaky_ _ū_ _!_

Unfortunately, they hadn't been partnered the whole time. Itachi was paired with a boy named Kamano, who, although full of confidence, didn't have the skill to back it up. The match ended quickly, with a throw, so Itachi got to watch Hino-nee get reprimanded for playing with her sparring partner.

"She was holding back! I can't spar like this!" Hino-nee complained. That just earned her another earful.

Itachi laughed. Sure, he understood the problem. Just like him, Hino-nee was beyond the level of this class–they had received the training of a clan leader since beyond Itachi's earliest memories, after all–but she was in some weird sort of denial over it. This made him wonder what, exactly, he had involved himself in by "helping" her motivate Nakamura-sensei.

* * *

Nakamura Touma was troubled. The blind girl in his class had handed him some weird papers full of dots. He'd been told it was some form of script for the visually impaired, but none of his training had prepared him for this. He'd have to find someone who could read it. _P_ _erhaps one of those ANBU types?_ _One of them is bound to know this weird code._

Still, given the number of pages, he assumed this meant she'd been taking detailed notes. At least he could read Uchiha Itachi's. Touma smiled. The boy was clearly a prodigy the likes of which were seldom seen. He'd answered every single question in the class, defeated a bigger opponent in one move, and hit all his throws.

The girl–he'd just found out her name. Uzumaki Hinote? _That's weird._ _I_ _hadn't known there were any more Uzumaki in the village beyond the cursed child…_ In any case, the girl had hit most of her throws while blind, and was clearly proficient in taijutsu–though she sorely needed discipline. Showing off like that against a less experienced opponent wasn't just rude to her fellow student, it was a dangerous habit. _Well, she'll have time to learn._

* * *

Kakashi was flabbergasted when the notes ended up on his lap. They had taken a circuitous path to him: from the poor soul assigned to teach the micro mastermind to someone in ANBU, then bounced around the place for some time before being handed off to him. _What did you get into this time, wee wonder?_

And now Kakashi needed to explain to the bitty brainiac's teacher that she had written a treatise on the subtle flaws in his lecture, based upon the writings of the Sandaime himself, with some Nidaime sprinkled on it. _Ugh._ That sounded like a lot of work, so he decided to sidestep the issue.

"Hokage-sama."

"Yes, Kakashi?"

"Your disciple, the puny prodigy, handed this in to her Academy teacher. He couldn't read it, so it ended up in my hands."

"She's taking academic classes? Ha! Poor Touma… I hear she's been hanging out with Mitarashi Anko, too? I need to watch this!" The Sandaime laughed, looking sideways at his crystal ball, then started reading.

"Answers to the Hidden Assignment, by Uchi- Uzumaki Hinote

"On the topic of basic battle formations, the third option addressed is clearly outdated, as pointed out in the works of…" Hiruzen trailed off, absorbed in the reading. "So what made her write this to her teacher?"

"Well, so apparently she thought the classes were so easy there **must** be a trick… she concluded the teacher must be sneaking in false information, which must be detected and reported for a grade." Kakashi could see a huge drop of sweat form on Hokage-sama's head.

"Well, get her out of that class. I'm afraid poor Touma will lose his nerves if he learns what's in here," he said, with a smile. "Ha! This is a good one. This girl is almost on the level of Oro-"

He stopped suddenly, smile gone, and took a moment to recompose himself.

"Ahem. In any case, let her finish the week, then pull her out of the academic curriculum. We already knew she shouldn't have been there, in any case. She also clearly needs more discipline training; I will ask Shoku-san about it."

* * *

By the time the week was done, Itachi-nii had already accumulated fangirls all over the place _. Oh my. Is this the fabled power of the triple_ _B_ _s:_ _beauty_ _,_ _brains_ _and_ _background_ _?_

I first noticed when, once we got a pause, I went to his desk to talk to him. I could practically feel the hostility emanating around me–not that I needed to, mind you; their whispers were loud enough for me to hear clearly.

"Who does she think she is, approaching Itachi-kun?"

"She's blind, isn't she? How's she going to be a shinobi?"

"I think I heard about her from mom. She told me to stay away from her… maybe her parents are traitors?" _That one must be Uchiha._

I didn't much mind; there were way worse things in this world than the gossip of little girls. Things this school was supposed to prepare us for. They'd stop soon enough, in any case. It was the nature of gossip to die down.

"Hello, Itachi-nii." I gave him my best smile.

"Hino-nee!"

Hugs ensued. So did death glares, I'm sure, but who gives a damn? From what I've seen during practice, these kids couldn't harm me if they all ganged up on me. And I was tied down. _Okay, l_ _et's not get cocky._ _Maybe just my arms tied behind my back._

Going back to Itachi-nii, he was reluctant to talk to me; apparently, Otou-sama had cautioned against it. I could sort of see where the advice came from; he was the clan heir, and I an exile. Still, Otou-sama had only told him not to approach me at school. Surely he and this Shisui friend of his could just happen to go train on one of the public training grounds once or twice?

"It's a good idea to make sure you get some variety", I told him, with a conspiratorial tone. "I know the new private training grounds are great," I said. He'd told me as much. "But surely the clan heir can't restrict his training to a single environment?"

I sat on the ground, pulled out my slate, and wrote down my schedule for him.

"Here are the training grounds I'll be using this month. Just so you two know which ones are taken."

* * *

When the second week of school started, the last-year students of the Academy were surprised to find, on their morning class, a small girl sitting at the front row. She was just under four feet tall, and wore a black jumper with orange highlights, as well as an eye mask. She was running her fingers over some blank paper.

"Hello, kōhai-chan. Are you lost? This is the seventh year classroom," said one of the girls. She had a feral look, and a small brown pup on her head. The child raised her head.

"No. I'm in the right place." And with that, she was back to her paper.

A minute passed.

"Look, kōhai-chan, this is not the place for you to do… whatever you're doing."

"I am reading," came the even reply. "And the classroom is certainly a place to study. Don't you agree?"

The older girl snarled, frustrated. One of the other students, a blonde, blue-eyed girl, raised her voice:

"It's okay, guys. It's not every day we get a cute kōhai to visit us, right?"

She turned to the feral girl, who was clearly irritated.

"Let sensei deal with it, Inuzuka-san. It's not your problem."

Then, to their small visitor:

"What's your name, kōhai-chan? This onee-san is Yamanaka Ayame." She pointed at herself. "Pleased to meet you!"

"I am Uchi- I mean, Uzumaki Hinote. It is a pleasure, Yamanaka-san." She lowered her head a little.

"Hey! Why are you being polite to her and not to me!?" Asked the earlier Inuzuka, a bit redenned.

"I must protest. I was never impolite to any of you. You were the ones who interrupted me."

"Why, you-"

"Good morning, students~! Sensei is here!"

The students, most of whom had been watching the spectacle, immediately bolted to their seats. Mitarashi Ichika-sensei was know for throwing blunted kunai at unruly students.

"Sensei! There's a kōhai in the classroom!" Said the Inuzuka girl, pointing at the intruder. Her dog barked for emphasis.

"Oh my. Are you Uzumaki Hinote-chan? I was unsure you'd be able to find our classroom. I must say, Nakamura-sensei was quite impressed with your… homework. I hope you will find such displays unnecessary here."

Mitarashi-sensei winked, and the girl blushed. Uzumaki-chan had been harshly reprehended for showing up her sensei like that, she knew. _I just hope she won't turn out like that problem child, Anko._ Mitarashi-sensei raised her voice.

"Everyone, this is Uzumaki Hinote-chan. She is a first year, but was reassigned to this class. I hope everyone will take care of her and help her adapt. Do you want to introduce yourself, Hinote-chan?"

Hinote walked forward.

"I am Uzumaki Hinote. As you can most likely see, I am blind. Don't worry, I can manage fine. Just don't ask to borrow my notes if you can't read them. Please take care of me over the next year."

She made her way to her seat.

As class progressed, it was obvious to every other student that Hinote's heart was not in the lecture. She was clearly paying attention, and taking notes, but her neutral expression betrayed none of the excitement all of them recalled feeling when they'd first attended an academy lecture.

"Can anyone tell me the strengths and weaknesses of the tactic we've outlined here? Inuzuka-san?"

On the Academy's trademark giant blackboard, the outline of a formation for a six-man, or double, team was displayed. Mitarashi-sensei had spent the last twenty minutes analyzing other such formations. Still, this one was more complex than the ones they'd looked at so far. The Inuzuka girl frowned at the diagram.

"It's easier to just rush in and beat them?"

"Wrong~! You do know there is a written exam coming up, right? Kobayashi-kun?"

"...sorry, sensei." The boy looked, and sounded, dismayed.

"Uzumaki-chan, care to take a crack at it?"

"Well, I can't see your diagram, but from you description it sounds like the displaced hexagon employed by Suna in the Second World War. Due to its pinched, hourglass shape, it enables great coordination and a small frontal profile. It is very powerful when used against an unprepared opponent, especially by shinobi capable of fast, coordinated movement. However, as demonstrated by Nidaime-sama, in the Third Battle for the Land of Rivers, it is vulnerable to attacks from the side, making it easy to ambush once one knows the enemy is employing it."

"Well done, Uzumaki-chan. Okay, Nara-kun, which formation would you adopt against an enemy who came at you with this formation?"

"Do I need to answer…?"

A kunai hit the windowsill next to his head.

"You were saying, Nara Shin'ichi-kun?"

"Assuming we survived the first onslaught well, I would use the double reverse triangle to pincer them from the sides. Otherwise, retreat. Fighting enemies in ambush formation is just too much work."

"Well done! So as we've seen…"

Mitarashi Ichika continued her lesson, but she could tell a lot of her students were too busy staring at the newcomer to pay proper attention. _Nothing a few well_ _-_ _placed kunai won't fix…_

* * *

"Wait, so they put you into **Aunt Ichika's** class? What did you do, set fire to the school? Maaaaaan, she's such a square, you know?"

"Anko, she's my sensei, not yours. How come **you** get to grumble to **me**? And she's not that bad; I find her lessons quite exciting. As for what I did…" I lowered my voice, feeling my face heat up. "I may or may not have sort of written a critique of Nakamura-sensei's class because I thought it was so bad it had to be a trick stop laughing, Anko!"

I tried to hit her sides, to no avail. Proud as I was of my taijutsu accomplishments, Anko was still loads better than me. Which brought us to this outing, where she'd promised to show me some dirty moves they didn't teach at the academy. Really, mainstream Konoha shinobi were so dead set on honor you'd think they were samurai, instead of ninja. _Well, I can't afford honor anymore. Not if I want to be strong enough._

We started from the basics: kicking sand or dirt in their eyes. Anko said there was a trick which could be done with chakra to stick dirt to one's feet and thus launch a lot of it–her sand kicks were certainly impressive–but while I understood the theory, I hadn't even managed tree walking yet. Maintaining that steady flow of chakra was a nightmare, and having to move quickly enough so the bark wouldn't explode under my feet was also a daunting prospect.

It was still a usable technique, however, even if the sandals favored by most shinobi weren't particularly conductive to it. I'd just need to practice with it until I could do it in live combat.

Next came using the light against one's opponents; a properly polished hitai-ate would do the job well, Anko told me, but "only a very stupid moron would wear polished metal on their forehead. The glint will alert any enemy not as idiotic as you for hundreds of meters." I could see the point.

Her advice was to carry a few well-polished kunai. Sure, they took work to maintain, but a second of blindness for the enemy was a second of weakness. _Now that I think about it, could I make a flashbang seal? I could activate it at point blank range without worries, while my enemies would have to at least cover their eyes. Hm…_

We adjourned for lunch, which I provided, as per our agreement. I could afford some extra ingredients – Kakashi and Rin-chan provided most of my basic necessities, but I still drew a small stipend from the village as a wounded soldier. At least that's what it was on paper, but given that the injury had happened before I actually enlisted by joining the academy, I was sure Hiruzen-sensei had finagled some regulations to my benefit.

"Oh! I see we've come at a good time, eh Itachi?"

My first impression of Shisui: jovial. Just from his tone right there, he was one of the friendliest people I'd ever met. He sounded like he was somewhere between mine and Anko's age–his voice hadn't cracked yet.

"Hello. You must be Uchiha Shisui-san. Pleased to meet you. This is Mitarashi Anko, my friend, occasional teacher, and self-declared dango connoisseur."

"Just call me Shisui. Any friend of Itachi's is a friend of mine. Now, all of this smells delicious. May we-?"

"Help yourself. Just be careful with the dango. There's enough for everyone, but Anko can get… territorial." I flashed my friend a grin, to which she responded by poking my ribs.

"You've been awfully mouthy lately, pipsqueak… maybe I should get 'territorial' on you!" She proceeded to tickle me relentlessly.

"Help-" gasp "I'm being-" giggle "oppressed!" I rolled on the grass, trying futilely to defend myself.

"Well that should teach you to narc on your senpai's **very healthy** preferences in foodstuffs."

Both Shisui-san and Itachi-nii were laughing. _I guess being tickled is a small price to pay to hear Itachi-nii's laugh._ I smiled. _I'll still need a word with Anko, though–what if my chakra leaked?_ I was wearing my sealed clothing, as I generally did for our training outings–they tended to require full on contact–but it was still a bit dangerous to touch me for a prolonged period, while I was… not poised.

Shisui-san turned out to be a boy of grand ideals. It did not take much coaxing to get him to wax poetic about his vision of what a shinobi should be. "Like a shadow, protecting the whole village from darkness". Something about it rubbed me the wrong way, but I couldn't put my finger on it. _Wanting to protect others is well and good, but… but what?_ Itachi-nii, however, was spellbound, judging from the "ooh"s and "aah"s he was emitting.

Not that he was a passive element in the exposition–he seemed very much intent on dissecting Shisui's ideology as much as he could. _Good old Itachi-nii. The curiosity of a six year old with the intellect of a sixty year old._

"How about you, Mitarashi-san? Seeing as you're the most experienced of us here. What do you think the purpose of a shinobi is?"

Shisui sounded genuinely interested, much to my surprise. Highly ideological people tended, in my experience, to be close minded. Not with this boy.

"I just try to do right by the people who do right by me. People will make up all sorts of fantastic ideas and paint all sorts of pretty pictures… but you see, this world?" She paused, and I cold see her in my mind's eye, gesturing around. "This world is **fucked up**. If you are good to me and mine, I'll be good to you and yours. You cross me? It's your head. Anything more than that is bullshit."

I felt, more than heard, her sit back down. _Anko…_ She needed a hug, so I gave her one. She was warm.

"I am terribly sorry to have stirred you so, Mitarashi-san; it was not my intention. Still, thank you for the insight. It is much appreciated."

"Geez, you're just like the pipsqueak gets some times. Drop the formalities. My name is Anko! Mitarashi-san is my aunt."

* * *

 **A/N:** This is mostly unedited, and a bit late. Maybe you'll forgive me because it's huge? It's the larget one yet, at over 4.5k words before notes.

I'd very much appreciate any comments regarding awkward phrasings, typos, or just plain plot holes. I hope there are none, but this **is** , unfortunately, mostly raw.

Itachi gets harder to write as he gets older! He's a mixture of cute naiveté, world weariness and untiring idealism. Why did I have to choose such a hard character to write as Hinote's closest family?

My favorite is Anko, though. She's like a smarter, bloodthirstier Naruto. What's not to love?

Reviews are welcome! I've introduced like four new characters (and one from the original) in this one, so be sure to tell me your impressions of them! I mean, they didn't get much screen time, but you know...


	21. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer: No Naruto owners over here! Nosiree!**

 **Chapter 20**

"Uzumaki-san. You've been awfully close to Itachi-kun lately, haven't you?"

The cold words brought a frown to my expression. My time at school had been mostly free of snippy comments from the girls in class ever since I started attending theoretical classes with the older students. I'd hoped my absence from Nakamura-sensei's lessons would assuage their concerns, but they'd apparently only been working up the courage to harass me during the taijutsu lessons.

I sighed. _Aren't you all too young to be fighting over a boy?_ Besides, I hadn't even been that close to him. We talked during the intervals between classes, sometimes, but that was all. If nothing else, it was the other girls who never dared get close to him. _Oh, tween crushes… among six year olds (!)._

I settled into a defensive stance. No student in this class, other than Itachi-nii, was much of a challenge for me, but I could still use the practice. If my repeated losses to Itachi-nii had taught me anything, it was that I needed to exert more patience. Advancing recklessly at him tended to end with me on the ground.

"Why aren't you answering? You're so talkative next to him!"

 _Okay, now you're just whining._ If it was going to keep like this, it would probably get annoying quickly. All this random trash-talk was wasting precious sparring time.

"Let's finish our spar. I'll answer your questions after."

"Ha! So violent… What does Itachi-kun see in you?"

I just made a "come at me" signal with my left hand. And so she did. I sidestepped her offensive, tripped her, and threw her to the ground. Her attack form was pretty decent, compared to many of the other students. _Must be from one of the shinobi families._ Still nowhere near Itachi-nii's level, however.

Once she was immobilized, I addressed her prone body.

"Look, I don't know what sort of delusion you're under. But if you want to separate me and my brother, you'd better train a whole lot."

I moved to my next match.

* * *

"Now, as you see, this position enables me to cover my face with the fan, as well as distract from my other hand, which in turn lets me plant or take an object, poison a drink, or draw a weapon. Note that you can use the sleeves of the kimono to further hide your actions. Now, let's practice. Form pairs, and try to pour these packets of salt in each other's tea."

Girls needed to take Kunoichi classes three times a week, while the boys got extra combat classes. Some might have called it sexism. Me? Rather than sparring some more with the scrubs in first year, I much preferred Mitarashi-sensei's lessons. They were quickly becoming one of my favorite aspects of Academy life.

We had started with tea ceremony, which was a bit boring. Still, it was one subject where I was actually behind; while I'd had some training, thanks to Kaa-sama, after my removal from the clan I had completely neglected the skill. Auntie hadn't been very big on the whole etiquette and politics thing. Plus, turns out that a mostly quiet room is really hard to navigate blind.

Making my way through the room with extra care, I sat across Yumi-san, a quiet kunoichi who radiated nervousness.

"H- hello, Uzumaki-san," she stuttered.

"Hello, Yumi-san."

I listened intently, trying to determine when she would make her attempt. _I need to distract her. But how?_

"How are your lessons going?"

"Our lessons? We went over weapon trajectories yesterday… I hate physics!" It was a surprisingly forceful statement, from what I knew about her. _Extreme hate for the exact sciences seems to transcend world boundaries…_

Meanwhile, I slowly moved my left hand, trying to sneak salt into her tea as she put it down to speak.

"It's a pretty important subject, isn't it?" _Just a bit more..._

A faint sound of liquid sloshing. She'd raised her cup.

"I think I like Kunoichi class more… I love doing flower arrangements. Also, we get to drink delicious tea. Mitarashi-sensei has pretty good taste in tea, you know?"

I raised my cup to my lips while I thought. My attempt had been a failure, but I was sure to succeed on the next try. I took in the fragrance. _It does smell pretty good… like the teas okaa-sama sometimes had in the afternoon._ I took a sip….

And immediately spit back the brackish tea. _When the-?_

"I'm sorry! You didn't drink any, so I put more… I'm sorry!"

Yumi-san kept apologizing, even offering me her own tea. _That'll teach me to underestimate a shinobi._

* * *

"…so I won't be able to come to class over the next week."

"Very well. You are dismissed from theoretical classes for the duration of your survival training."

Tomorrow, we of the first year class would depart on a survival training mission. In other words, we were going to camp on the outskirts of the forest which pervaded and surrounded Konoha. Otou-sama had taken me and Itachi-nii on similar outings a couple of times for training, but I had stayed away from the woods since. Well, until Anko had decided I should get acquainted with her "infallible Forest of Death survival techniques."

They included knowing which few of the many plant and animal species weren't deadly poisonous, carnivorous, or otherwise hazardous, as well as what she termed "awareness training"–following a trap-riddled trail through the woods, while she made surprise attacks. Honestly, by the second round I was **done** with snares. Hanging from one's foot was as far from a fun activity as I could imagine.

"You'll thank me for this, pipsqueak. They always send people in there for the chūnin exams. No creativity, I tell you. Now, if **I** was in charge…" She let the phrase hang, and I hoped she was never put in charge of the exams. Ever.

As for our little Academy exercise, I expected most of the activities would focus on learning the basics, such as lighting a fire and locating water sources. This was all very well, but I was likely way ahead of the lecture. Otou-sama had made sure I knew my way around the local wilderness, while Anko had had decidedly too much fun teaching me to identify poisonous flora through its smell and texture. _She's not the one touching the poison ivy._

In any case, the senior years were not going on an outing of their own. They'd dealt with tens of those by the time they reached this point; now, they were only expected to master ninjutsu and tactics. This meant I was going to miss classes, which led to my current activity.

"Yamanaka-senpai, may I have a word?"

"Huh? Ah, it's kōhai-san, Did you need something?"

"Well, the first years are going on a survival training over the next week, so I was wondering if you'd mind saving your notes, so we can go over them together when I return."

I could have waited to arrange this after I returned, but leaving things for later tended to create hassles. Also, though Yamanaka-san was a nice girl, and the one senpai who I'd actually talked to, she was not the most diligent student. Her notes should be good enough, however, and this meant I could repay her by helping her understand the material.

 _Yep. That's right, senpai! I'm asking this for your own sake, so please agree!_

"I- Do you need me to be there? Couldn't you just borrow someone's notes?"

"I could, but I'd need assistance reading them."

"Oh, because you-" Her mouth snapped shut so forcefully I winced. "Sorry! I didn't mean- I meant- Fuck." _Language! I'm technically a six year old, senpai!_

"It's okay. Anyways, this also means we can help each other with the material!"

"That makes sense… See you next week, then, kōhai-chan!"

"Hinote. Uzumaki Hinote. Thank you, senpai!"

 _That was easy enough._

* * *

"Okay class, find your group and split up!"

Once we were in the area designated for the survival exercise, Nakamura-sensei immediately instructed us to separate into the standard trios and look for places to camp. Groups hadn't been assigned; finding teammates who complemented one's own skills was part of the assignment– _unless I'm overestimating the Academy again_. I'd wanted to get Itachi-nii, but judging by the squealing we'd both been swamped by girls.

"Will you pair with me, Hinocchi?"

"Come one, Hinote-chan! I'm sure we'll be best friends!"

 _When the hell did I get on first name terms with you guys!?_ I had no idea when I became so popular, and I didn't much care for it. I may not be Kakashi, but I valued my personal space. It felt uncomfortable having so many people badgering me, so I moved to escape.

No way I could get to Itachi-nii–from the sound of things, his crowd was twice as big as mine–so I went in the direction of another voice I recognized, where Yumi-san seemed to be chatting with a friend.

"Hey! Yumi-san! Can I join your group?"

"Ack! Uzumaki-san! I- er…"

"Thanks! Please take care of me!"

I couldn't wait for her to assent. _I'm running for my life here, okay?_ From the sound of it, most of those would be Itachi-nii fangirls, attempting to get close to him through me. _Geez. Fangirls are scary…_

"That was not nice, Uzumaki-san." Came the voice of Yumi-san's friend, in a cold tone.

"Eh!?"

"Chika-chan is a nice girl, so she's easy to push around, but you can't take advantage of her like that. You clan kids are all the same…"

"Kyōko-chan!"

"No, she's right. I am sorry for that."

"Good. Welcome to the group, Uzumaki-san."

"Thank you, er…"

"Tsubaki."

"Yes, Thank you, Tsubaki-san. It's good to know Yumi-san has such a… fiercely protective friend."

Tsubaki-san's family, it turned out, raised birds. Messenger birds, pets, the whole nine yards. In fact, she had brought her own hawk, Rokku-chan, to the exercise. The bird proved useful as soon as the activity started; her scouting saved us a lot of time looking for a place to set up.

Overall, albeit from a civilian family, Tsubaki-san was a boon for our group. Besides her abilities as a falconeer, she was a capable shinobi, and very mature for her age. Not that Yumi-san was incompetent–once I'd started paying attention to her, she'd turned out to be quite resourceful–but shining next to such an excellent Tsubaki-san was tough.

We set up our tents, and went looking for the herbs sensei had told us to find. I mostly stuck to helping confirm and harvest the plants we found, since I couldn't contribute as much to actually locating them. Anko's training or not, just looking around was way more efficient than groping and smelling every plant around.

"So," I began, once we were done for the day. The sun was sinking, so there was little point in continuing to look. "Your family raises birds, Tsubaki-san?"

"Yes, like I told you before. We're the best in the Land of Fire!" She huffed– _is that her puffing out_ _her chest?_ –and Rokku-chan cried to punctuate it.

"I see. Do you think you could tell me more about it later? I've never heard of a falconeer shinobi." It did sound like something with plenty of applications.

"Sure."

We were working to pitch our tent before complete dark, while Yumi-san set some traps around the camp. These were supposed to be the safer parts of the Konoha forests, and sensei was patrolling the area, but we were still better safe than sorry.

* * *

The next morning, we set out to complete our herb-gathering quest. It was pretty easy-going. I did feel a bit useless, since my teammates did most of the herb spotting, but I was here to learn. _I'll_ _need to ask Shuku-sensei about sensory boosting techniques._

Much like most shinobi could increase their muscle power using chakra–Guy-san being the premier example–there were also ways to boost one's senses with chakra. Since I could use Strong Fist techniques with no ill effects, I should be fine with a sensory boost… so long as I didn't overdo it. _Otherwise I'll run out of senses fast._

"Uzumaki-san."

Yumi-san broke me out of my reverie. I felt the heat rush to my face, knowing I had been slacking off. _And I was already contributing the least._

"How are you so strong? I saw you spar with Akimichi-kun the other day. Even Kyōko-chan lost to him… but you beat him so easily."

"I'm not that strong. I could never catch up to Itachi-nii. And out there… See, Yumi-san, I've been training since I was three. I have more experience than you guys, But don't be mistaken, I'm not strong at all." _Not nearly strong enough._

"See, Chika-chan? I told you! It's all a question of training. These clan kids have been training for years. We'll need time to catch up to them."

"But Akimichi-kun is from a clan too!"

"If anything, I should be the one asking you, Yumi-san. Didn't you beat me at Kunoichi class?"

"Eh? That was just… You were distracted, so I poured the salt in. It's nothing like what you can do."

"Tch. Have more pride in yourself, Chika-chan!"

The slap Tsubaki-san gave Yumi-san's back resounded through the forest. _Ouch._

* * *

"Good morning… Uzumaki-chan, was it?"

"Good morning, Yamanaka-senpai."

Once we'd come back from the trip, I met Yamanaka-senpai for our "study group". She'd volunteered to come to my home in the afternoon, so we studied in the bedroom Kakashi and Rin-chan had given me.

Yamanaka-senpai turned out to be a practical learner, more suited to trying things out than sitting in a lecture, so I had her help me put together a few makeshift miniatures, which I used to illustrate formations as she read. I had tons of fun. _Beats TA'ing for Algebra I students any day._

She had a clear voice and precise enunciation, especially considering she must have been eleven or twelve. In another life, she may have been a singer, a voice actress, or a translator. Here, she was a soldier and a spy. _Such is life in the world of shinobi._

We made a pause, and I brought out some onigiri I had helped Rin-chan make in the morning. _I'm definitely getting better at this!_ By then, I could consider myself an actual cooking asset for the house… I hoped.

"Who drew these?" It seemed senpai had been looking around.

"I did."

"They are beautiful!" _Well, I have some fifteen years more experience than you think._ "Is this Hokage-sama?"

I nodded. I had, indeed, drawn Hiruzen-sensei once, when I'd found him sleeping off his overtaxed body and mind, back when we'd had semi-regular lessons.

There was an awkward pause.

"So, let's move on to lesson four, okay? It's the first lesson on scouting techniques and…"

And so passed the rest of the day. Yamanaka-senpai stayed for dinner, when we had curry chicken for dinner. She had the **ultra-rare** opportunity to fangirl over Kakashi. I didn't tease him about it at all once she went home.

"Wow, Hatake-sama! You're so popular with the Academy students! Should I bring the rest of my class over next time?"

Okay, maybe a bit.

* * *

 **A/N:** A new chapter? Gasp!

Yeah, so IRL stuff got tough near the end of June/start of July, and then I was full of other things to do (including relaxing! I need breaks). So when I got back to this I was wholly out of touch and needed to retouch it a lot. In the end, I had to break what I wrote in half... So hey, at least you know next chapter is almost certainly coming out on time!

Bunch of new characters in this one. Yeah, I know. But don't worry, soon I'll start killing them all! Mwahahahaha! Well, who knows...?

In any case, I hope all of you have had a nice two months! Reviews are welcome... even if I left for a while. Please?


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